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As long as we're discussing beamed power, why not have just enough power to reach cruising altitude (presumably above any clouds), then use solar panels to cont
by ph0rque 7y ago
As long as we're discussing beamed power, why not have just enough power to reach cruising altitude (presumably above any clouds), then use solar panels to continue flight? This would admittedly limit long-distance flights to just daylight, but still better than what is currently possible.
- petschge 7y agoLet's run the numbers for say a Boeing 767. It has a wing area of 290 m^2 and the main fuselage of 5 meter width and 60 meter length, so lets assume another 200m^2 of surface area. 490m^2 of solar panel can generate 0.2 * 490m^2 * 500W / m^2 = 49 kW. Compare that to the 800kW that the APU in the tail supplies to keep electric and hydraulics running if the main engines fail or the well above 200 MW that the main engines put out.