Solar-Powered Plane Would Fly by Flapping

ByABC News
May 18, 2004, 11:20 AM

May 19, 2004 -- Our neighboring planets may someday be explored by aircraft with no motors or jets or props, but with solar-powered wings that flap and soar like an eagle.

The world hasn't seen such a contraption since Icarus donned his wax wings and flew out of that Greek mythological prison, only to fly a tad too close to the sun and plummet back into the sea. But that doesn't mean it was a bad idea, according to researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla, who are breathing new hope into the old idea of flying like a bird.

They are riding the crest of a technological wave, trying to combine today's and tomorrow's breakthroughs in a project that sounds almost like science fiction. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is interested enough to provide $63,000 in seed money from its Institute for Advanced Concepts.

But nobody has ever built a flying machine powered totally by solar energy, and pushed aloft by flapping its wings, so can these folks really do it?

"I think so," says Kakkattukuzhy Isaac, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the university. "Definitely."

The idea is so far out that Isaac says he and his fellow researchers aren't planning to build their aircraft in the next few months. Instead, they are projecting five or six years down the road, when some really exotic materials should become available. Then, they hope to bring about a marriage of their aerospace concepts with these new materials.

"I think that is quite realistic," Isaac says.

Light as a Feather

The machine they plan to build will be a bit larger than an eagle, and it will use solar energy to flex its wings during the day, climbing higher and higher, and then soar through the night. That substitutes altitude for a battery as an energy storage device, thus helping to solve one of the main obstacles to making this baby fly. A battery would be just too heavy.