Influence of Input Parameters on Wing-Sail Solar-powered Aircraft

Abstract

Solar-powered aircraft of wing-sail configuration employ sail tails mounted with photovoltaic (PV) modules, which could maximize solar energy absorption. The design guidelines of primary parameters for the wing-sail configuration differ significantly from solar-powered aircraft of conventional configuration. Under the constraints of energy balance and mass balance, key input parameters are explored to investigate flight principles of the wing-sail configuration, which include the area ratio of sail tails to the wing, gravimetric energy density of secondary batteries, nominal efficiency of PV modules under standard conditions, surface density of PV modules, aspect ratio of the wing and efficiency of propulsion systems.