solar airship

they sell these at Hawkins bizarre for £12.99

@brockly12345 sell em at red5 for only £12

Watch out for the kid with the slingshot!
Excellent idea though.

having those as a source for solar power after some time of development would be so beneficial concerning the energy crisis we are facing... besides, it is far more practical than fossil fuels which also does more negative effects to our planet...

Brilliant concept.
Would this scale up to full size or would weight of solar panels be a problem??

What do you do when there are strong winds?

Don't fly. This is a small prototype, showing that off-the-shelf solar can move an airship quite easily. This is running on 25 watts only, with 6% efficient panels (three years ago). The idea is to go larger with better panels and get greater speeds.

Thanks for clearing that up. I am also about to undertake a project to build an airship powered by solar panels. Do you have any advice? How did you ascend/descend?

Amazing. My biggest worry about airships is 1: They must be shocking to fly in a strong wind, & 2; The gas would be expensive woudnt it? Also how do you asend & decend this model so well, I thought you had to pump the gas in & out thus loosing some all the time.

Increasing speed will deal with winds. We now do about 40 with batteries, and could match that with higher end solar. Helium is expensive, a fossil fuel tied to petroleum fields. Hydrogen could be used with proper precautions and more development. Small ships use little gas, however.