Sunseeker Duo - 2-seater solar plane

Solar technology innovations have helped create an aircraft that can harness enough light to fly across the continent like Solar Impulse. However, taking a person on a flight is a major challenge for this type of clean energy aircraft.

In 2012, the Solar Flight team decided to face the challenge of revealing the world's first two-seater solar-powered development project, the Sunseeker Duo . And today, the company announced that the aircraft has just undergone several months of flight performance testing and achieved very promising results.

Solar Flight project started in October 2012 when project leader Eric Raymond announced plans to produce a powerful solar powered aircraft designed for 2 people. A very successful fundraising campaign on Kickstarter led Raymond to take a step closer to realizing ideas, completing the construction and flying the Sunseeker Duo test on December 17, 2013.

Since this time, the team has tested many aspects related to aircraft performance such as monitoring the battery, motor, propulsion system and landing system. Unrest in flight testing was also monitored and prompted the research team to add photovoltaic batteries to the horizontal tail.

Today, Solar Flight announced that the aircraft has gained good control over the airstrip and surpassed its predecessor Sunseeker II in all respects. The company says the Sunseeker Duo can fly directly with solar power with 2 people on the cabin for 12 hours or more.

The Sunseeker Duo has a wingspan length of 22m and an unloaded weight of 280kg. A total of 1,510 photovoltaic panels were installed in rows on the main wing and tail wings, collecting solar energy to store into the Li-ion battery pack placed in the body. The rotor fan motor gives a maximum output power of 25kW, much more than the development team's expectations.

Raymond said: "Today's Li-ion batteries have 7 times the capacity of Ni-Cad batteries that we have used on Sunseeker I. When designing this aircraft, we cannot imagine. Solar cells have a efficiency of more than 20%, and technological improvements have made dreams come true. "

Solar Flight aims to develop the Sunseeker Duo not only to overcome design and technology challenges, but also to create a high performance and practical aircraft."We are trying very hard to test the plane and get ready for flights with passengers this summer. Nothing is better to see the Earth from above and it will be even better to sit in The cockpit of a solar powered aircraft , " Irene Raymond - Eric's wife and colleague in the project said.