Elektra One Electric Plane + Solar Panels

April 17th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

Say who? An electric plane called Elektra One is adding solar panels to its bragging rights. And the plane is actually selling for quite a competitive price… if you’re in the market for hobby planes. Here’s more info from Chris over on Gas2:

Elektra One EV Plane Adds Solar Panels, Doubles Range (via Gas 2.0)

Electric cars may be struggling to find a home, but EV’s are making remarkable progress in the unlikeliest of places; aviation. Last summer we brought you the story of the Elektra One, an all-electric airplane a range of about 300 miles. Well the brilliant minds behind the Elektra One are back with…

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Tags: elektra, elektra one, PC-Aero, solar airplane, solar airplanes, solar panels plane, solar plane, solar planes, SolarWorld

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Th0th

typo correction in Headline.. [Elekra] should be Elektra
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Woops, sorry, thanks!
http://ronaldbrak.blogspot.com.au/ Ronald Brak

If we got rid of the pilot and perhaps added some more solar cells it could make deliveries to remote areas, or drop emergency supplies.
anderlan

This is the first I’ve seen of this craft. Fantastic news! But I’m really skeptical. The Twizy also has a 100kg battery and it has under 10kwh. Maybe you could get high quality, lightly-packaged Li ion battery to do 20kwh or more in 100kg. But still, I calculate a minimum cosmically possible 3kwh just to raise craft and pilot 10,000 feet. That’s the 100% efficient ideal, and it doesn’t even count the friction of the air in the way along the 300 mile transverse distance, and I’ve already used a chunk of the charge in the theoretical battery. I’m very excited by this, but I’d love to see it do what it claims 10 trips in a row. Even if it were only half as good as it claims, this would still be an incredible craft.
Luke

Great idea! I think electric aircraft will start small and progress upwards (economies of scale, etc) – so this is a perfect stone to step off. Larger commercial jets will probably retain engines, but one day they might be fueled by biofuel instead.

Why not add some more solar cells to the wings though?