World's first commercial solar aircraft aims for the Stratosphere

By Matthew Griffin Future Transport 22nd July 2018

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Tomorrow’s aircraft will be battery powered, but future generations of aircraft could do away with the batteries entirely.

While Elon Musk is invested in getting humans to different places, whether it’s from one side of the planet to the other in rocketships, or to Mars, also in rocketships, at breakneck speeds using unbelievable technologies, there may be one day where we circumvent this Earth of ours without using a single drop of fuel, using planes that are powered by electricity, such as the ones being designed right now by Airbus, Boeing, Rolls Royce, Wright Electric, and Zunum Aero, who want to be the “Tesla of the skies,” and not fossil fuels.

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SolarStratos is also a company with the same ambition and they’ve created a manned aerial vehicle with a two person capacity, an incredibly large wingspan, and the ability to completely run on nothing but solar power, so much so that it doesn’t have any fuel on board at all – nothing, not one drop. Oil barons feel free to look away now and cry into your mountains of dwindling cash.

SolarStratos aims for the heavens

The massive wingspan has a twofold purpose. It not only enables the plane to fly without using as much propelling power, but it also comes with solar panels mounted all over it.

The Switzerland based company’s plane has already set records for being the first solar powered airplane to reach heights of 25,000 meters, and made from custom as well as off the shelf parts, the SolarStratos plane comes with an Austrian made 20 kWh battery, solar panels from California based SunPower, and given the heights it reaches, the pilots will be clad in specially designed pressurized spacesuits made by Russian company Zvezda.

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SolarStratos’s founder Raphaël Domjan hopes to develop a technology that can battle climate change and champion solar power over high octane fuel. Once the technology is proven to work, the company aims to build a 3 manned vehicle too that will include a pressurised cabin and will operate commercial space tourism flights as soon as 2021.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.