George E. Bye, CEO and Founder of Bye Aerospace, will speak on the endurance capabilities and benefits of solar-electric powered aircraft as part of DaVinci Institute’s Speaker Series on Tuesday, June 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the DaVinci offices in Louisville, Colo.
Bye is a long-time advocate for electric and solar-electric propulsion for general aviation and optionally manned aircraft.
His company, Bye Aerospace, recently launched Aero Electric Aircraft Corp. (AEAC) to bring a new two-seat solar-electric training aircraft called “Sun Flyer” to the North American market, under license agreement from its technology partner, PC-Aero.
In addition, Bye Aerospace collaborated on design and research for a solar-electric powered small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) called “Silent Falcon,” currently beginning low rate initial production by Silent Falcon UAS Technologies.
A special combination of technologies and design enable Silent Falcon to maintain station, with flight endurance of 8 to 12 hours. This same type of capability will be translated onto the Sun Flyer trainer.
“Aerospace projects like Sun Flyer and Silent Falcon are highly complex, requiring technologies from a number of different sectors,” Bye said.
A critical element is weight, and weight savings can be achieved by incorporating light-weight solar energy collectors and using advanced composite materials for the structures. The recent improvements in conversion efficiency for thin film solar photovoltaics (TFPV) has also directly improved flight capabilities, company officials note.
“Much like the race to the moon in the 1960s, history shows that aerospace transformation has helped the United States remain globally competitive,” he said. “We believe that solar-electric propulsion is just one aspect of that transformation.”
To register or learn more about the June 10 event, click here