This tiny solar-powered flyer weighs less than a paper plane

Researchers have overcome efficiency and power issues to create what they believe to be the lightest and smallest sunlight-powered rotorocraft in the world.

Micro aerial vehicles or MAVs could have a host of applications from environmental monitoring to search and rescue. But currently, these tiny flying machines have a problem — endurance. MAVs that weigh less than 10 grams are normally limited to around 10 minutes of flying time.

Read the paper here: Sunlight-powered sustained flight of an ultralight micro aerial vehicle

To increase flying time, other types of propulsion have been tested, but these still require bulky power systems on the ground to take off, preventing any craft from freely flying.

One solution could be solar power. But until now no solar powered MAV has been capable of untethered sustained flight in natural sunlight.

So to solve this, researchers have developed CoulombFly, a solar-powered MAV propelled by a new extremely efficient electro-static motor and powered by incredibly light solar panels.

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