Titan Aerospace unveils the world’s first solar-powered UAVs

Originally published on August 26, 2013 Aircraft designer Titan Aerospace unveiled last week its Solara 50 and 60 unmanned aircrafts, the world’s first atmospheric satellites powered by the sun with a mission range of over 4 million kilometres. An atmospheric satellite is a drone that can conduct most of the operations of an orbital satellite, but is much cheaper and more versatile. Among the applications of a Solara aircraft there are disaster recovery, weather monitoring, communications relay, oceanographic research and earth imaging. According to reports, Solara 50 and 60 can be launched at night using power from internal battery banks. When the sun rises, the solar panels covering the crafts’ wings and tails, store enough energy to allow them ascend to a position of 20 km above the sea level and to stay aloft continuously for five years, without ever having to land and refuel. The aircrafts will operate in an atmospheric sweet spot known as the tropopause where winds are generally less than 5 kno