Technical Note
Perpetual Solar-Powered Flight across Regions
around the World for a Year-Long Operation
Parvathy Rajendran *, Muhammad Hazim Masral
†
and Hairuniza Ahmed Kutty
†
School of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang 14300, Malaysia;
hazimasral@gmail.com (M.H.M.); hairunizaahmed@gmail.com (H.A.K.)
* Correspondence: aeparvathy@usm.my; Tel.: +60-4-599-5963
† These authors contributed equally to this work.
Academic Editors: Javaan Chahl, David Anderson and Michael Wing
Received: 16 January 2017; Accepted: 7 April 2017; Published: 11 April 2017
Abstract:
This study aims to promote the conventional solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV) to be used as a satellite known as a pseudo-satellite (pseudolite). The applications of UAV
as a satellite are still in the initial stages because these proposed UAVs are required to fly for long
hours at a specified altitude. Any solar-powered system requires extensive mission operation
planning to ensure sufficient power to sustain a level flight. This study simulates the optimal UAV
configurations at various global locations, and determines the feasibility of a solar-powered UAV to
sustain a continuous mission. This study is divided into two different phases. An all-year operation
of the average UAV (AVUAV) is simulated in Phase One and is designed specifically for each of 12
cities, namely, Ottawa, Honolulu, Quito, Tahiti, Brasilia, London, Riyadh, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur,
Accra, Port Louis, and Suva. Phase Two is a simulation of a solar-powered UAV design model known
as 1UAV, applicable to any city around the world for a year-long flight. The findings state that
a single UAV design is sufficient to operate continuously around the world if its detailed mission
path planning has been defined.
Keywords:
solar-powered aircraft; unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); global; perpetual flight;
pseudo-satellite; solar irradiance
1. Introduction
The development and utilization of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for military and civil
applications have significantly increased within the past years [
1
]. Recently, a new UAV that operates
as a satellite known as a pseudolite has been developed [
2
,
3
]. A satellite is expensive to build and
requires a highly skilled engineers [
4
]. Therefore, the introduction of an airborne pseudolite may serve
as an alternative method for satellite-related missions.
Several studies have been conducted to establish long-endurance UAVs, which aim to improve
perpetual flights. Battery-powered UAVs cannot replace satellites completely, even though significant
improvements have been implemented to enhance the capabilities of battery packs. Thus, researchers
are venturing into solar-powered UAVs for the opportunity of endurance enhancement.
The solar-powered UAV is a cost-efficient option for data communication and has the advantage
of a cheaper manufacturing process and lesser time requirements than satellite construction.
Solar-powered UAVs may also perform mission operations that offer great flexibility [
5
,
6
]. For instance,
a solar-powered UAV is eligible for different missions, such as the payload, in which sensors or
other components may be changed based on the desired mission objective. The vast technological
improvement on electronic components means that the payload may also be enhanced over a certain
service time to maintain its reliability. The technology used in the UAV could be improved and
advanced technology may be used.
Aerospace 2017, 4, 20; doi:10.3390/aerospace4020020 www.mdpi.com/journal/aerospace
