China has designed a solar-powered drone that is 130 feet in width. The wide machine invented to fly at more than 65,000 feet, for days on end. This can be made possible by using a super lightweight body and renewable energy technology that can power all eight of its electrical propellers. This drone can reach the destination by speeding up to 125 miles per hour.
The Chinese Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA), has constructed Caihong-T4, CH-T4 that consists of a cranked wing, double-bodied fuselage, and twin tail. It has got a wingspan of 40 meters or about 130 feet, that means it is broader than a Boeing 737 jetliner. Despite its large size, it weighs between 880 to 1,100 pounds. It owes its lightness to its carbon
In case of size and flight altitude, that’s second place to only the NASA Helios Prototype, the other solar-powered flying aircraft, which possesses a 246-foot wingspan and can reach an elevation of 96,863 feet. CAAA scientists told the China Daily that the CH-T4 has a flight time design goal of several months, needing only minimal human supervision.
Flying up to 65,000 feet means that the CH-T4 will fly above almost all cloud cover, so it will enjoy almost unlimited access to sunlight during its operations. At the night time, to power its motors the CH-T4 will draw power from onboard batteries. The long period of solar-powered drone construction by China projects parallel work at both DARPA and tech companies such as Facebook applications. For militaries, technology in this way might provide the best plan for observation missions targeted at military and terrorist targets.
It can gain its high flight ceiling to sustain the line-of-sight contact of about 400,000 square miles of ground and water which is about the size of Egypt. For both the military and technological firms, covering so much territory makes it a perfect data relay and communications node.
This will allow the drones to exchange or back up satellite communications, sustain coverage between the distant aircraft and ships, or even provide broadband to some of the rural Chinese households.
Watch a video of the Chinese Solar Powered Drone:
