Solar Airplane

The project’s main objective is to design, build and fly an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), for both manual and autonomous control, for which flight time will be extended, powered only by solar panels, by 120+ minutes after battery-life. The project will be organized in collaboration with UC Irvine, and no competition is planned. 

  • For Seniors graduating in March 2025, commitment to prepare for and possibly complete in a Spring 2025 demonstration event together with UC Irvine.
  • All Capstone team participants must be registered student members of the national AIAA organization.

This project will have teams from multiple major collaborating to achieve a final flying airplane.

Objectives


This project will require close collaboration among various engineering disciplines to deliver on the goal of long-sustained flight.  The team can also look at applications for such a long-flight platform. Specific areas include: 

  • RC & power electronics
  • Digital logic design
  • Arduino
  • Data Science

Motivations


There are numerous applications for an easy-to-deploy inexpensive platform which can fly over a fixed area including for communications, search & rescue and ground sensing.

Qualifications


Minimum Qualifications:
None Listed

Preferred Qualifications:
None Listed


Details


Project Partner:

John Greeven

NDA/IPA:

No Agreement Required

Number Groups:

1

Project Status:

Accepting Applicants

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