Solar powered drone technology for extended flight duration

A New Solar Drone Stays Airborne for as Long as the Sun Shines
A prototype equipped with ultra-thin photovoltaic panels could mark a turning point for solar-powered aviation and open up new possibilities for unmanned flight.
Film director Stanley Kubrick once remarked, half in jest, that the lesson of the Icarus myth was not a warning against human hubris but a call to build better wings. In his case, the heat of the sun put an end to the hero's flight, but in our time we’re beginning to harness the power of that same sun in order to take off. The idea of a more sustainable aviation sector based on photovoltaic energy already has several notable precedents. These are not high-powered aircraft, but they do achieve long flight times and, crucially, a much lower environmental impact . In parallel, the drone sector is also testing those possibilities. The latest example is an experimental drone fitted with 27 ultra-thin solar panels that can fly without batteries at all.
The Icarus comparison doesn’t end with the concept of flight. In the Greek myth it was Daedalus who built the wings that allowed him and his son to escape from Crete. In the case of the new solar drone, there is again a father-and-son duo behind it. Mike Bell and his son Andy were already responsible for developing the fastest drone in the world, the Peregreen 2, which reached 480 km/h in 2024, a record they surpassed with the Peregreen 3 in 2025, reaching a top speed of 585 km/h.
On this occasion, however, the pair have opted to prioritise sustainability over speed. Their solar drone uses an X-shaped carbon-fibre frame designed to house three rows of nine ultra-thin solar panels and four rotors equipped with 18-inch propellers.
Alongside the frame and the rotors, the aircraft includes cameras and wireless transmission systems for remote control. Thanks to the 150 watts of power it generates , it doesn’t require batteries or capacitors to fly.
The Bell family’s photovoltaic drone has already completed its maiden flight, demonstrating its operational efficiency. Fortunately, the result was rather less dramatic than Icarus’s own attempt, as can be seen in this video:
Solar-powered flights have been a reality for several years. One example was the AtlantikSolar initiative, which in 2017 kept an unmanned aerial vehicle in the air for several hours. More recently, we’ve seen examples such as these:
Skydweller. One of the most ambitious initiatives in the field of solar aviation. Closer to a satellite than anything else, this unmanned aircraft, designed to remain airborne for months, has a wingspan greater than that of a Boeing 747 and more than 17,000 photovoltaic cells. Its goal is ambitious: to demonstrate that surveillance, communications and Earth observation can be maintained from the stratosphere, where the sun never sets, without consuming a single drop of fuel.
Kea Atmos. Developed in New Zealand, it represents a new generation of lightweight solar aircraft for scientific missions and environmental monitoring. In 2025 it reached 17,160 metres during an eight-hour flight, an achievement for an aircraft weighing just 40 kilos with a wingspan of 12.5 metres. The project has a clear aim: long-duration stratospheric flights capable of covering natural disasters or assessing remote ecosystems without the need to refuel.
RA 2.0. A solar-powered technology demonstrator developed by the university project Team ICARUS (a somewhat questionable naming choice, it has to be said). Its design focuses on full energy autonomy and the optimisation of ultra-light structures, a key approach for the next generation of solar UAVs.
Solar-sail probes. Strictly speaking, these are not aircraft because they will travel through the vacuum of space, but theoretical models already propose probes with enormous sails measuring hundreds of square metres and only nanometres thick. These would capture solar photons to propel themselves through outer space. So far, prototypes such as LightSail have already demonstrated their viability in Earth orbit.
And if you would like to explore the potential of solar energy on four wheels, we recommend this article on the world’s largest solar-powered car race , a genuine endurance challenge that tests the ingenuity of multiple development teams as they take photovoltaic technology onto the roads of the Australian desert.
Source:
New Atlas
AtlantikSolar
Wired
David is a journalist specializing in innovation . From his early days as a mobile technology analyst to his latest role as Country Manager at Terraview , an AI-driven startup focused on viticulture, he has always been closely linked to innovation and emerging technologies.
He contributes to El Confidencial and cultural outlets such as Frontera D and El Estado Mental , driven by the belief that the human and the technological can—and should—go hand in hand.
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