Facebook's solar powered aircraft.

Facebook's Aquila

Kimmo Huosionmaa

Solar powered aircraft might be replaced satellites in many missions. They have the capacity to fly at very high altitudes because their engines don't need oxygen. And because they don’t need fuel, those drones can stay in the air even years. Those drones have also the capacity to fly in other planes atmosphere and that’s why they are interested in NASA. Solar power drones can be sent to Venus atmosphere to investigate that planet. But in other planet mission what will head to Jupiter and Saturn, there is a nuclear power needed because in that distance the sunlight won’t have enough energy for produce electricity for those probes.


Also, those drones have great capacity in long endurance surveillance missions, where they must fly around same point even years without brakes. And solar power is the more ecological way to produce electric power than RTGs (Radio Thermal Generators), what are using high radioactive isotopes to produce electric power.


To replace example Predator UAV:s combustion engine with RTG is very easy. There must only connect an electric motor cesium battery, and the result is a UAV, what can operate even years. Those drones can come day fly to the Jupiter, Saturn and Titan's atmosphere. Their sunlight is so weak, that produce an electricity is not suitable for solar panels.


When we are thinking of the next generation green aviation, we must realize, that all kind of airplanes are not suitable for all missions, and all kind of airplanes have their own weaknesses. The problem with ultra-fast airplanes is that they spend lots of fuel, and that’s why those aircraft are not suitable for long enduring operations.


Facebooks’s next-generation solar-powered “Aquila” is an attempt to replace the communication satellites with solar powered airplanes, what can fly at extreme altitudes. Those airplanes capacity is very effective because if those robot airplanes system will be malfunctioning, the system can return to base for service and repairings. Those solar powered aircraft fly around the same point and offers an enhanced communication capacity to the people who need that. But there is one little problem with those airplanes.


Their solar power systems don't get enough sunlight at polar areas, where is the most need those systems. That kind of systems must have another kind of propulsion system in that kind of system. If we will use imagination, the solution might be ultra powerful radio waves, what induces the electric power to that system, when auxiliary combustion engines are not needed. Those solar powered airplanes might have used in surveillance role, where those planes fly across the border area even months without brakes.


That kind of airplanes can be equipped with optical sensors, what allows those operators to surveillance all areas. But solar-powered drones have one capacity, what other planes won’t have. They might be built by STEALTH materials and they are invincible in radar infrared and even for a human eye. So those planes can fly across the battlefield and show targets to other planes. Solar power airplanes can fly extremely high altitudes. They can fly above all other planes and show targets to attack aircraft and use laser microphones and electronic equipment to eavesdrop to enemy command sites.