This is the most complex aircraft build so far 😅 Get SOLIDWORKS for Makers (20% off $48 /year!) ► https://www.solidworks.com/projectair
BIG thank you to Painless 360 for his help with getting our autopilot to work. Check out his channel here… I recommend it! https://www.youtube.com/@UCp1vASX-fg959vRc1xowqpw
Check out RCTestFlight here https://www.youtube.com/@UCq2rNse2XX4Rjzmldv9GqrQ
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DISCLAIMER: This video is purely for entertainment value. Personal use of video content is at your own risk. Recreations of experiments, activities and projects are the sole legal responsibility of the person(s) involved in replicating them. I can not be liable for any information or misinformation, wrongful use, damage to personal property, death or any circumstances that result from replication of any projects seen. Be safe!
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We went from zero solar experience to… less than zero! Can't wait to start on the Solar 3 for the next video. 😎☀
18:13 – oh oh…
Can you replace the propeller by some sort of ion wind construction or alike, to avoid moving parts? This way the flight time would not be limited by the wear of moving parts and get much closer to infinity.
There are parts of Arizona that are sunny (minimal cloud cover) 98% of the year.
the only question i'd have with solidworks is if their interface comes with a dark mode, bcs my eyes already hurt from watching you use it^^
UK weather oh my, thats good!😊
20:20 BOEING VIBES
Bro if you launch your solar plane with tom stanton's electromagnetic aircraft launcher it would be insane
maybe you should try fitting a parachute it will go better 😁😁
I'll wait for next solar plane
Hello Mark Robers
Try with supercapacitors + Solar Cells
Daniel is the king of creating solar planes, I'm still waiting for Solar Plane V5 or maybe the his flying solar panel was the V5 😂
For another video you should try to see how high you can get an rc plane. Very Good video 🎉
You learned some of the most important flying and engineering lessons here. Make a plan and use checklists. And perhaps most importantly, when you feel like you need to rush, take a quick step back and make sure you’re executing the plan. Don’t ask me how I’ve learned these lessons… Sometimes more than once. 😁 Love the enthusiasm! Keep up the good videos.
Planes you build either crash young or stay airworthy long enough to eventually get a rocket motor strapped to them 😂
Yowch! I actually winced multiple times at some of those hits.
How much did those cells cost? Also, where could somebody find one or two of them? Asking for a friend…
Thanks for an enjoyable video! I'll be subscribing to see what else you have in your imaginative little minds! :)
You need to watch @Rctestflight. He did this years ago. And it literally flew all day.
trying to build a solar powered plane…. in England
smart
Way cool, can't wait to see developments. I'm a prepped and have built my very own off grid solar power "generator". Some day pv efficiency will make it possible to fly our very own personal flyer solar powered plane. I am totally convinced of this. You guys are practically illustrating this. I will be subscribing.
I have an idea for something for you to try. I don't know if you are an SF fan?. There are a series of books by David Drake called "Hammer's Slammers" about a futuristic mercenary unit. The star of the stories is the Panzers. These are 170 ton hover tanks. The interesting part and what could be an interesting challenge is this. The tanks use a rigid plenum chamber rather than a flexible one and are powered by 8 fans in the plenum chamber which are gimballed to provide motion to the vehicle. The interesting challenge would be to use some sort of computer to stabilize the system and then to see if changing the direction of the fans thrust could be used to maneuver the craft.
Very cool
So you ran the battery empty and that's why it crashed?
I know! Let's have the girl throw the heavy, akward, huge plane that I just busted my ass building! wtf? That's probably why you crashed.
You should add a camera on it, like the ones in the military
Looks like the plane from Chase the sun mobile game
for Mk II, have a charging circuit for the "controller battery" that pulls power from the "motor battery", that way you can guarantee that you'll have close to a full charge if anything were to go wrong and you were to lose thrust/have to bring it in for a manual landing.
Solar plane in the UK…. lol
Like your car
Why did the plane not glide when it crashed 18:20
You could benefit from using a small capacitor to store some charge from the solar panels and use it when you manuver facing away from the sun, because your plane seems to lose power completely at certain angles, which is not ideal.
UPD: sorry, I seem to have commented too quickly in the video, as later you explained the same problem.
@Project-Air I'd take a look at some of the more professional implementations of this/research projects, the ones that come to mind are atlantik solar which achieved a multi day mission and the Kraus Hamdani K10000 ULE. Both of these rely on high aspect ratio glider designs that rely on thermals to mantain a lot of their altitude.
Can you give a link to the solar panel pls?
Tasty
just look at that 10:26 !!!!
I'm genuinely interested in doing a similar build. What is stopping you from doing a smaller scale RC plane? I know you need large surface area for solar cells but can't you do it on a smaller scale where you have a tiny motor/battery?
I had a quadcopter that weighed like 40grams and it could go like 60-70kmph (Mobula 7)
This feels like we will be able to have constant imagery data from cities/fields. I see a lot of data gathering applications :o
Now make it storm proof and add a camera I'd be a good spy craft.
Holy shi-
THATS NOT A NORMAL PLANE THAT IS A B2 SPIRIT BOMBER 16:24
i dont like you
you could make a rail track that goes around the world with solar panels next to it all across and attach a wire to the track then connect it to the plane
James you are so talented with your ideas, filmmaking and building skills – but PLEASE can you update your knowledge of flight electronics! A tiny INAV FC would have flown much better out of the box, that GPS is from the stone age, and you recently loss an entire build due to continuing to use Spektrum. Your projects would be much more successful if you engaged with a local drone club or online community to get advice on modern equipment.
this is basically a repeat of the wright brothers but in solar form the wright brothers did a lot of gliding test before they made the first powered flight
You got UFO at 17:21. OMG
It is just the sun as the fuel
lol that crunch was epic
Important lesson, once you know it works bring it down
If humanity invents long range wireless electricity which goes from point A to point B then you could create more solar aroplanes like this but can go above the clouds so then the clouds don’t block the sunlight and generate eco friendly electricity without having to have ground solar panels which are blocked by clouds
Pre-flight checklists are a thing for a reason. You might want to try to find low light cells. There have been some recent advancements in low light efficiency cells and some are flexible as well. Cool project, good luck.