First solar energy airship

A century after Louis Blériot aboard Blériot XI first accomplished the feat, a team of engineering and business students decided to cross the Channel aboard the Néphélios, the first solar-powered airship designed for the Sol'R Project. In late August this year, the blimp will undertake the crossing. Meanwhile the team is already preparing another version of the blimp that will be fitted with solar panels and a fuel cell. It should be ready before the year is out. The new pioneers will only have one last major step to take, i.e., design a larger blimp and attempt the crossing of the Atlantic in 2010!
"The purpose of the Sol'R Project is to tackle the very daring challenge of flying a blimp on solar power. It continues the tradition of the pioneers who kept pushing back the frontier of aviation - yesterday it was speed and endurance, today sustainable development," said Gérard Feldzer, the Director of the Bourget Air and Space Museum, who supports the project that was hatched by two engineering students, Aloun Vangkeosay from the Lyons Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA, National Institute for Applied Sciences) and Thomas Raphaël at EPF, a general engineering school. The boyhood friends shared the same passion burning in the veins of yesterday's aviation pioneers. Of course, the courses given at their top-level graduate schools were useful, but the engineering students were eager to build projects, develop them from scratch, and test performance in the field.

Their eagerness was further kindled by Aloun's interest in this type of airship as he had already designed a balloon. Blimps were Thomas's field. In 2007, they contacted several people among whom Stéphane Rousson, a blimp specialist, who had actually developed several flying blimps for various projects. He also told them that the future belonged to solar powered blimps. This was back in November 2007 when Aloun and Thomas decided to undertake a project that soon won over ESSEC student Arnaud Vaillant. "The project really got off the ground in late 2007. We began putting together the first technical teams. Once the teams were set up, we started looking for funding in May 2008. In September 2008, the projects, specifically pod design, got underway," summarized Project Financial Manager Arnaud Vaillant.

High-school and University Students & Engineers Working on the Same Project

Today some thirty volunteer students and engineers worked on developing Sol'R sponsored by INSA, ESSEC, EPF, ADEME and Total. Several technical partners were also involved in the project, ENR Systems, ULX Sarl, Endlessflyers, me2solar, Insitut National de l'Energie Solaire (INES, the National Solar Energy Institute) and Dirisoft. The Air Liquide Foundation committed to supplying the required helium. The Bourget Air and Space Museum was also involved in Sol'R. Not only has it backed the project since the beginning, but it also lends it facilities to the Sol'R teams. The blimp envelope was built in the Museum's Eight Columns Hall. The mammoth enterprise began last May 2. Just think! The envelope is made of 12 twenty-five meter long sailcloths in technical fabric. Four adhesive bonding operations were required, meaning 100 meters of adhesive bonding per sailcloth. Air-filled ballonets inside the envelope can be inflated or deflated to adjust blimp trim.
The envelope is fitted topside with 40 square meters of flexible solar panels with a yield of about 6%. "We are not looking for absolute performance as our main goal is to get across the Channel. So, we opted for the very resistant solar panels used by the army in theaters of operation," he explained. The collected energy will power an electric engine installed behind the steering pod equipped with two twin-blade propellors located on the side of the envelope, enabling 360° turns. For safety reasons, the team opted for 24 volts for the first airship. However, the team would like to use 48 volts for its next prototypes. The pod was designed by Lyons INSA students working with students from technical high-schools. "Having teams from every academic level, from technical high-school students to postgraduates and several engineers, is one of the special features of the Sol'R project." The system will be generating solar powered electricity designed by INES researcher Jordi Veirman.