Solar-powered unmanned aircraft with lithium-sulfur battery

• The Korea Aerospace Research Institute has actually carried out a battery-powered test flight of solar-powered unmanned airborne vehicle EAV-3. The airplane is powered by solar cells on its wings and body and also an LG Chem lithium-sulfur battery.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute has carried out a high-altitude test flight of solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle EAV-3, which includes a lithium-sulfur battery from Korean producer LG Chem.

The battery company stated, in a press release, the little aircraft was conceived for long flights at a dizzying elevation of 12km or even more. The plane engine is powered by solar cells on the 20m-long wings and also 9m body. "During the daytime, it flies using a solar cell as well as battery power as a resource of power as well as, during the evening time, it makes use of battery power charged during the day time," stated LG Chem.

The flight test was performed in Korean airspace from 08:36 a.m. to 09:47 p.m. at an altitude of around 22km. "It flew for 7 hrs, out of a total of 13 flight hours, with a steady outcome in the dizzying altitude of 12-22km, where a basic aircraft can not fly," said LG Chem.

The business stated EAV-3's power storage system needed to endure hard weather including temperature levels of close to -70 levels Celsius as well as reduced pressure of a 25th of one environment, for a setting the business referred to as virtually a vacuum cleaner. "LG Chem plans to demonstrate a long-endurance flight that lasts more than a variety of days by generating additional test products of lithium-sulfur batteries in the future," said the battery provider. "Moreover, it prepares to mass produce a lithium-sulfur battery that has a power thickness greater than twice that of the present lithium-ion battery, after 2025."

British battery manufacturer Oxis Energy is likewise preparing a lithium-sulfur battery powered two-seater aircraft. The all-electric airplane is meant to have a flight time of more than two hours and also a series of about 200 nautical miles.