Aereo Solare

Pursuing the dream of flying without having to stop to change batteries or refuel, MR WATT in collaboration with expert modeler Roberto Maiorano, has developed a model aircraft powered only by solar energy. The novelty of this project is that all aerodynamics are designed for flight without the use of batteries!

Starting out for fun and as a personal challenge by a group of experienced hobbyists in the model airplane industry, this activity is becoming exciting and full of new goals and objectives to be achieved so much so that it has involved many enthusiasts who contact us every day asking and giving us advice.

The dream of flying without the use of an accumulator for the first RC solar-powered airplane with these features was already achieved in the spring of 2017 where the first model, the Solar DR1, literally took flight with only the energy produced by the SunPower high-performance solar cells mounted on the wings and without batteries.

HERE A SHORT VIDEO OF THE MODEL VER. 1.0 ALREADY INDUSTRIALIZED AND AVAILABLE FOR SALE ON OUR E-COMMERCE SITE… BUT THE STORY DOES NOT END HERE’ !

Since that time, we have not only awakened the forgotten dreams of experienced or enthusiastic aeromodelists, but we have been close collaborators with a number of universities and aviation institutes to whom we have provided SolarDR1 model aircraft for study and testing.

After the first version of 1300mm wingspan we continued the project driven by a new target presented for a small state in the Gulf of Mexico. A private individual on the island of Anguilla funded the development of a model aircraft that could monitor the small island’s coastline to prevent the approach of poaching boats. The project consisted of fabricating an airplane, which in addition to flying without batteries and thus without limits on sunny days, could also carry a cargo of at least 500gr which would be used for the electronics of the plane’s remote control. Again, in April 2019, we were able to fly a new version of our 2150mm wingspan solar plane with a load capacity of at least 500gr and always flying without batteries. This model, at the latitudes of the island of Anguilla is also better performing as the sun rays are always more perpendicular to the solar cells mounted on the wings of the aircraft than in our latitudes (central Italy).

HERE IS A SHORT VIDEO OF THE MODEL VER. 2.0:

HERE IS A SHORT VIDEO OF THE MODEL VER. 3.0

Now, the main goal of this project is to jointly undertake research on navigation, aircraft control, and also work on the design of the structure and power generation system. Our solar plane is able to fly continuously, which makes it suitable for a wide range of applications of which the main one is obviously land and sea monitoring by covering very long distances without a crew. In particular it could be used for:

HERE IS A SHORT VIDEO OF THE NEW MODEL VER. 4.0 BEING TESTED: