This solar drone can fly 5 hours—here’s why it could never land again
From YouTube Speed Records to Solar-Powered Endurance
Luke Maximo Bell has made a name for himself on YouTube as a drone creator, often building his high-flying projects with his father. Usually, you’ll find them obsessing over speed rather than stamina. In fact, his latest speedster clocked a jaw-dropping 408 mph—yes, that’s right, 657 kilometers an hour—for the Guinness World Records. The drone was so blazingly fast, it couldn’t even be filmed by a stationary camera; Bell had to build a second drone just to capture the footage of the first!
The Quest for a Solar Endurance Record
This time around, Bell shifted gears to focus on how long a drone can actually stay in the air with nothing but solar power. He managed an impressive 5 hours, 2 minutes, and 21 seconds. For a custom-built quadcopter, that’s almost certainly a record—even if it’s not officially recognized. It might have flown even longer, but Bell had to call it a day, since he was piloting manually the whole time and, well, he’s only human.
This solar-powered drone managed to fly for more than five hours straight. © Luke Maximo Bell
Trial, Error, and the Solar Drone’s Fragile Realities
Bell’s initial solar drone had its panels directly mounted to the frame, with the rotors on the outside. However, resisting wind turned out to be a problem. To enhance performance, he shortened the structure and stacked the solar panels on a second level above the frame.
Unfortunately, the upgraded version still faced its fair share of challenges. The panels couldn’t deliver enough power: every breeze bumped up energy consumption, while each passing cloud took power away. To iron out the power delivery, Bell added a small battery and removed four panels, which also helped reduce the drone’s tendency to act like a kite in the wind.
He had initially programmed the drone to hover by itself, but GPS troubles meant Bell had to step in—manually flying the drone for the entire five-hour stretch. As he notes, this version is limited: it can’t handle any kind of wind, needs totally clear skies, and the solar panels themselves are extremely delicate. Not exactly ready for delivery runs (unless you want your packages delivered only in perfect weather and never after sunset).
Le record d’autonomie pour les aéronefs solaires de moins de 50 kilos est de 81,5 heures. © AtlantikSolar, ETH Zurich
Dreaming of Infinite Flight (and a Lot of Sun)
Still, Bell isn’t giving up. He believes true indefinite solar flight is possible—if he transforms his design into an eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft) with a fixed wing to mount the panels. That would let the drone fly just like a plane and use as little as 10% of the power it needs to hover. A battery could then keep it flying through the night.
Bell also hopes for new solar panels with higher efficiency. The ones he uses now are between 20% and 25% efficient; with improvements, he could either pump more power into the drone or reduce the number of panels to cut down on wind drag.
But here’s the rub: turning his drone into a fixed-wing aircraft would mean it’s no longer a quadcopter. Suddenly, Bell would be up against serious heavy-hitters like the Airbus Zephyr S, a 165-pound (75 kg) plane that managed a staggering 67 days in the air. And in the under-110-pound (50 kg) class, the ultimate record stands at 81.5 hours—the feat of the 15-pound (6.8 kg) AtlantikSolar 2 UAV built by ETH Zurich back in 2015.
In the world of solar flight, every extra minute is hard-won—and to think, it all starts in a backyard with a father, a son, and a dream (plus a whole lot of sunshine).