This innovative solar-powered drone, manufactured by French company XSun, was on display at the ITS European Congress in Toulouse last week. In this exclusive interview Nathan Terrien, drone company XSun’s aviation documentation and regulations coordinator explains exactly how their aircraft works, the thinking behind its unusual two-wing design, as well as detailing current and future use-cases for this eco-friendly craft.
The SolarXOne autonomous drone is the result of years of intensive research and testing in partnership with world-class laboratories and universities. XSun engineers and scientists work toward excellence from design through manufacture, starting with highly innovative multidisciplinary optimisation design.
Unique tandem wing configuration
Thanks to its unique patented dual-wing stall-free design, SolarXOne drones deliver an extremely stable and safe flight experience. Additionally, low-speed landings and take-offs can be accomplished, allowing for a smaller ground footprint. Cruise speed is low as well, and can be adjusted to meet mission requirements. For example mapping missions are ideal for the default cruise of 50 km/h. Furthermore, each wing contains control surfaces that maximise flight safety and trajectory accuracy, thereby adding further redundancy and control.
Solar energy autonomous UAV
SolarXOne’s on board energy system was designed to maximize the use of solar energy. It is unrivaled, safe, and extremely robust. Because safety and reliability are at the heart of our design, we have implemented a unique 3 energy security system with 3 sources of power: batteries in master/slave, then 4 solar wings. With an intelligent BMS, the batteries are guaranteed the highest level of safety. SolarXOne UAV can even operate at night using batteries. A very advanced on-board energy system manages the entire system to ensure the safety of all equipment, including redundant critical buses, with a total power output of 200 Watts.
Unique Energy System
SolarXOne’s on board energy system was designed to maximize the use of solar energy. It is unrivalled, safe, and extremely robust. Because safety and reliability are at the heart of our design, we have implemented a unique 3 energy security system with 3 sources of power: batteries as master/slave, and 4 solar wings. With an intelligent BMS, the batteries are guaranteed the highest level of safety. The SolarXOne UAV can even operate at night using batteries. The very advanced on-board energy system manages the entire system to ensure the safety of all equipment, including redundant critical buses, with a total power output of 200 Watts. The solar panels encapsulation and four wings are made with the highest quality material to ensure a long lifespan.
SolarXOne comes with two possible solar cells :
1 – Very high efficiency custom silicium solar cells
2 – World’s most efficient GaAs 3-5 thin solar cells
SolarXOne embeds the latest technological systems to ensure the highest level of safety.
FTS : Electronic Flight Termination System with parachute (via SATCOM)
ADS-B Out (UTM ready)
Detect and avoid : vision
SolarXOne comes always with a full FTS (Flight Termination System) to stop the flight, stop the engines, opens a parachute, triggers a loud buzzer and flashing lights. When landing, the very strong carbon and composite design absorbs the shock to avoid any material damages. The FTS can be triggered by the pilot on the ground or automatically at certain special conditions.
Sources: Aerospace Testing; website