{"id":8693,"date":"2014-02-26T14:25:48","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T21:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=8693"},"modified":"2014-02-26T14:25:48","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T21:25:48","slug":"titan-aerospace-low-flying-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/titan-aerospace-low-flying-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"Titan Aerospace and Its Low-Flying Satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ken Rentmeester, a regular reader of the blog, shared a news item from the <\/a><\/span>IEEE (<\/i>Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)<\/span> Spectrum<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0Calling <\/span>Titan Aerospace\u2019s Solara<\/a> unmanned aircraft \u201catmospheric satellites,\u201d the article gives a brief history of solar-powered craft, including the Boucher brothers\u2019 Sunrise I, the first solar-powered airplane in 1974, Paul MacCready Jr.\u2019s first piloted solar-powered flight in 1980, and the current world\u2019s endurance record for unmanned, solar-powered flight \u00a0by the QinetiQ Zephry in 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Roland<\/a>

Roland Boucher and friends assembling Sunrise I in 1974<\/p><\/div>\n

That airplane follows the look of the Boucher\u2019s early effort, and Titan\u2019s examples look a great deal like scaled-up versions of FAI F5-type models which rely on electric self-launching, rapid climbs and extreme flight capabilities to win contests.<\/p>\n

\"FAI<\/a>

FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale) F5 group launch. Titan craft look a great deal like bigger version of these high-performance models<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite great successes such as Zephyr\u2019s, there so far has been no commercial market for this type of aircraft.\u00a0 Titan hopes to overcome shortcomings that prevented broader acceptance for its predecessors.\u00a0 These included limited photovoltaic capabilities, poor battery endurance, and fragile airframes, which were simply scaled-up from the builders\u2019 model airplane experience.\u00a0 Spruce and balsa could be shattered by \u201ca little bit of weather,\u201d as Kevin Jones, an aerospace engineer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California explained to the Spectrum<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"Titan<\/a>

Titan S50, potentially in commercial use by 2015<\/p><\/div>\n

The current aircraft, the Solar 50 (for its 50-meter \u2013 164-foot wingspan), can serve many functions now performed by more expensive orbital satellites.\u00a0 \u00a0As Jones points out to the magazine, solar cells have improved from 10 percent efficient when Roland Boucher was flying his first sun-powered airplanes to 40 percent today.\u00a0 Energy density for lithium batteries has increased in a similar fashion.\u00a0 Modern carbon-fiber construction allows large, light airframes that retain their original shape, even in highly turbulent air.<\/p>\n

Because of these factors, and because the Titan airframes will fly at 50,000 to 65,000 feet, where weather is \u201cidyllically\u201d stable, missions could extend to months, and in the future, up to five years.\u00a0 \u00a0Its 3,000 solar cells would charge the on-board batteries, claimed to be able to hold enough energy that together with the solar cells in operation, they could produce up to seven kilowatts of power.<\/p>\n