Sun-H2, the UAV with clean propulsion
Humanity is faced with the major challenge of finding a different energy source or risk having to face insurmountable problems in the long term. Daily the media reminds us of the harmful effects of the global warming – disordered states of the environment caused by the effects of the excessive use of fossil fuels. The awakening of environmental values is becoming increasingly broad and universal.
It is in such a context – questioning of our traditional energy model – that the "Sun-H2" project was born.
With the publication of various studies started here in the last few years, the company Sun-H2 was born. His mission is the development of an aircraft with electric motorization. The needed electricity will be of photovoltaic origin combined with an embarked fuel cell.
The interest in electric motorization is multiple: simplicity, absence of vibrations, absence of sound pollution and CO2 emission. The use of the free energy from the sun, will make it possible to increase the duration of flight - in the long term to most likely be used to ensure permanent flight tasks such as aerial observation.
To observe and analyze the ground, the sea and the air are the missions carried out mainly by satellites in orbit. The observation UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), which have the capacity to fly over the ground at lower altitudes, represent an emergent market particularly complementary to that of the space sector. Tasks as various as land registering of cities, arable lands, meteorology, the study of the evolution of fauna, cartography, controls of pipelines, gas emissions , borders appear among the multiple applications. By choosing this type of motorization and energy, the objective is to increase autonomy, and to aim in the long run, to achieving flights of several weeks to several months.
The flying wing Sun-H2 will be developed into an UAV version of 12,5 m2 :
In the second phase of production, the UAV will be extrapolated to a bigger face, allowing an increased autonomy and payload (30 m2 wing surface).
According to the strategy we have adopted, an alternative of a light two-seater tourist plane could be considered along the basis of development as those of the remote-controlled UAV. The production of an economic light fuel cell plane alone seems to address the problem of quietness, as well as that of the private sport pilots and the people they fly over, and finally, addresses the more environmentally constraining standards of the future.
Such are the objectives of the Sun-H2 project: for the first time to make fly over Europe an unmanned remote sensing aircraft with clean propulsion and also, in the long term, to produce a two-seater aircraft better integrated into the environment.
The challenge is daunting, but enthralling.
