Solar Blimp Created by French Students to Fly Over English Channel

A solar-powered, emissions-free blimp designed by engineers and built by French students will soon begin a journey across the English Channel. The helium blimp is 22 meters long and is made up of an aluminum frame covered in an outer wrap made from nylon and polyethelene. Semi-flexible solar panels affixed to the blimp are capable of providing 2.4 kilowatts of power.

From Wired:

“Right now we use a surprisingly small motor which powers two big red propellers,” Felix Hildenbrand, one of the people involved in the project, told Wired.com. The propellers can push the blimp, which is 5.5 meters or about 18 feet in diameter, along at as much as 25 mph.

“All the work was done by students of engineering schools or technical high schools,” Hildenbrand said. “We want to cross the channel with this prototype by the end of the summer.” At the Strait of Dover, it should take a little less than an hour.

After a year and half of work, the team just wrapped up a successful display of their final creation at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget.

The team is preparing for a test flight in two weeks before sending the blimp, which has been dubbed ‘Nephelios’, out over the channel. Hildenbrand says they don’t have military ambitions for the blimp – they just want to show that it’s possible.

It may seem strange to mix new tech – solar power – with the old tech of blimps, but it’s an interesting mashup and if this project is successful, it could inspire all kinds of solar-powered aviation creativity.

Link [Wired]

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