Flight Path Pattern of Solar-Powered UAV-Mission Around the World

Abstract

The solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) enables global communication with optimal pseudolite function, which flies around the world with limited satellite capacity. SUAV collects energy from sunlight during the day and stores up the excess energy in a battery to be used at night. The total energy collected is highly dependent on the intensity of solar irradiance, time, location of operation and the SUAV operating altitude which results in sustainable flight throughout night. Although many researches recently focused on SUAV flight endurance performance, limited works were done on planning the flight path pattern, to achieve non-stop continuous flight mission around the world. Thus, this paper demonstrates worldwide irradiance intensity and digital elevation with hourly mission flight time data effect at each altitude and longitude. This paper illustrates the possibilities of non-stop perpetual flight around the world using SUAV.