With a goal of “perpetual flight,” Daniel Preston and a small group of engineers and professors are working to design an unmanned, autonomous, solar-powered electric airplane that can achieve that milestone of staying aloft around the clock … even during the longest, darkest night of the year.
And why, you might ask, would you need such a plane?
Although most of us in the developed world take cell phone and internet service for granted, there are still 4 billion people without access to the benefits of being connected.
The potential benefits for mankind are a major motivator for Preston.
As he explained, “a fleet of unmanned computer-controlled aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying in formation in the stratosphere could carry the telecommunications equipment needed to provide connectivity at a much lower cost than launching satellites, building cell towers or running wires and fiber.”
“Given their mission profile and capabilities, our planned UAVs have been called stratospheric satellites,” added Preston.
His new enterprise, Luminati Aerospace, was formed only four months ago as a “skunk works” for an unnamed Fortune 250 technology company. What Preston describes as a “dream team” of engineers and professors has been assembled on Long Island, N.Y., at the former Grumman facility on the historic Calverton Airport.
“We bought a portion of the airport and the company’s offices and manufacturing facilities occupy the same buildings where Grumman manufactured F-14s,” said Preston, a native of New York, who is thankful to not be working out in the middle of the desert somewhere. “We control a 10,000-foot runway at Calverton for the next 30 years.”
Evidence of what the lean, 22-person company can accomplish quickly was shown for the first time at SUN ‘n FUN. The piloted quarter-scale proof-of-concept electric motorglider, a single-seater called the vO Substrata, boasts a 200 nm range and a four-hour endurance. If the wing-mounted solar cells are in direct sunlight, battery recharge time is four hours.
“It can also be plugged in,” says Preston, “and a ‘$100 hamburger’ flight of 200 nm would only cost around $4 in electricity.”
Still in the flight test stage, the 27-hp motorglider, which has a wingspan of 43 feet, has climbed to a maximum altitude of 28,000 feet. With a full-feathering prop, the plane’s glide ratio is 32/1, which can be increased to 120/1 with solar-powered electric assist.
Luminati’s test pilot, Rob Lutz, accompanied Preston to Lakeland and helped to answer questions at the booth.
Although not originally envisioned as a commercial product, the vO Substrata has attracted enough attention from universities and early adopters to justify a production run of six tandem-seat versions, which will probably sell for around $250,000 each.
“Our current aircraft will serve as a test bed for several unique technologies we are pioneering, such as autopilots that are not simply designed for point-to-point flight,” Preston explained. “They will also be tasked with maximizing solar energy generation and wind energy harvesting.
At present, Preston is confident his team can design a solar-powered plane that will have enough battery power to fly through the night during the summertime and he looks forward to continued improvements in battery and solar cell technology … and hopefully better prices.
Two sets of wings have been constructed to experiment with different types of solar cells. The cells currently installed cost $40,000 and are 24% efficient. The plane’s second set of wings are equipped with solar cells typically used in satellites that are 31.6% efficient, but they currently cost 10 times more, or $400,000.
If there’s a solution to that challenge, count on Preston to find it. After all, the 44 year old engineer and inventor started college at age 12.
That realy look like PC-Aero’s Electra One designed by Calin Gologan in Germany… This is a real skunk work but with another meaning.
Press-Release : for immediate release June 2016
Elektra One Solar from PC-Aero/Germany:
Luminati Aerospace not mentioned the real name of the aircraft
During the last days we were contacted by many journalists from USA.
They discovered that an aircraft looks identical with our aircraft
Elektra One Solar. This aircraft was presented by Luminati Aerospace LLC during the “sun and fun”/Florida in April and in the last days during the official first flight tests in US.
Some of them just reacted with comments (see blog.cafefoundation.org).
For this reason we need to inform the general aviation community that this aircraft is in reality an Elektra One Solar developed and built in Germany and ordered by Luminati.
After the internal flight tests performed in Penzing/Germany, the aircraft was delivered by PC-Aero to Luminati in NY.
Luminati not mentioned the real name of the aircraft. This represents a huge image and business damage for our company.
Anyway we are proud to find in the last media releases the best evaluations of Luminati’s test pilot Robert Lutz concerning our aircraft Elektra One Solar.
Luminati Aerospace presented the Elektra One Solar in Calverton, N.Y., Friday, June 10, 2016 as VO-Substrata prototype aircraft
Elektra One performed the first flight in March 2011.
In July 2011 we received the Lindbergh Prize for Electric Flight in Oshkosh where we also performed demonstration flights.
In June 2015 we crossed the Alps in both directions using only 18 kWh of energy.
That looks very much like one of the Cologan PC-Aero designs.
V good invention i wish this is my own plane