Solar plane tests capacity for search and rescue

A solar-powered plane is preparing for a new mission: to fly over the Amazon rainforest.

Solar plane tests capacity for search and rescueSolar plane tests capacity for search and rescue

Solar plane tests capacity for search and rescue

It's part of a test to find out the limits of the plane's endurance so that future models may be used in search and rescue missions.

 

The unmanned plane, AtlantikSolar, which has already broken records, is now set for a new challenge.

 

One of the plane's developers, Philipp Oettershagen says the purpose of the flight is to test the plane's limits.

 

"We will fly for more than 400 kilometres straight, so continuously on solar power alone and autonomously too and we'll be mapping and recording atmospheric data during this time over the Amazon rainforest."

 

In July, the same aircraft broke a world record becoming the first aircraft weighing less than 50 kilograms to fly continuously on solar powered batteries for more than four days and three nights in Zurich.

 

Solar modules power up the aircraft's energy-dense batteries during daylight, allowing it to fly through the night

 

Fellow developer, Professor Roland Siegwart, says such a plane would be useful in searches, such as the one for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370.



"Imagine that you have an aircraft which we recently had, which is lost, in the ocean, you can imagine these are small airplanes, you have probably a fleet of them, 50, 100, and you really cover big areas. So you just fly them out in the ocean and then they can take images and then you can analyse images and then probably find people and find lost airplanes and so on."

 

Cameras and atmospheric sensors will be fitted to the fixed-wing 6.8 kilogram plane.

 

Phillip Oettershagen says the combination of a light plane with a long endurance would make it ideal for searches.

 

"What you want to have is a long flight endurance, so you want to be able to map the whole area and specifically a large area over a long time, in order to basically provide the rescuers with up-to-date imagery."

 

The team behind the aircraft will arrive in Brazil on October the 17th.

 

If weather conditions permit, AtlantikSolar will take off from the city of Belem on October the 22nd.

 






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