SolAero: Sustainably Powered Airplanes

Trailblazing Research.

Engineering and business students are collaborating to build zero-emission, independent, extended autonomous aircraft to collect flight time data with the intention of creating programs to speed up the certification process for unmanned and manned aircraft systems. Using a small fleet of aircraft equipped with solar panels, our students have engineered a system that can complete several hours’ worth of research in a fraction of the time. This data and process will be groundbreaking in its application for autopilot programs, creating fully autonomous delivery systems, and remote safety monitoring.