Welcome To Solis Fur!
"The Sun Thief"

Project Description

Explore the use of engineering principles to design and build a solar powered aircraft capable of sustaining indefinite flight while the sun is out. This project is part of our senior Capstone for Mechanical Engineering at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Az.

Customer Requirements

Indefininate flight while the sun is out.

Engineering Requirements

Minimal Weight, Panel Output, Aspect Ratio, and Lift

House of Quality

Weight is the most important aspect of this build.

Project Details

Benchmarking data, Photos and Videos related to the project.

Benchmarking

Air Craft Considered

Concept Development

CAD Renderings

Construction

Pictures

Testing

Flight Data Graphs

Final Design

Flight Video

Documents

Agenda/Minutes

Project Timeline

Follow along on our journey as we work towards our goal of indefinite flight!

  • August 2018

    Project Initiated

    As an alternative project so the SAE Aero competition plane, our team requested to work on the solar plane project for our 2018-2019 Senior Capstone project.

  • September 2018

    Solar Output Calculated

    Solar output analytically calculated to understand theoretical power output and number of panels needed.

  • October 2018

    Airfoil Designed

    Initial airfoil design computed using MATLAB with anticipated design parameters.

  • November 2018

    First Design

    First plane iteration designed.

    • December 2018

      End of First Semester

      Electrical System Prototype presented to client & class to end 1st semester.

    • January 2019

      Second Semester

      Team developed final iteration of plane design.

    • February 2019

      Components

      Plane components being ordered and prepared for manufacturing.

    • March 2019

      Manufacturing Begins!

      Team started manufacturing.

    • April 2019

      Finish Manufacturing

      Finish plane and begin testing in preparation for 2019 UGRADS symposium.

      • NAU-UGRADS Symposium

      April 26th, 2019

Team

Consisting of five Mechanical Engineers, we bring years of industry and relatable experience to the project.

David Trevas

Project Sponsor / Client

Brandon Beaudoin

Project Manager

Michael Broyles

Design Manager

Jonathan Hernandez

Website Developer

Ethan Smith

Client Contact

Nathan Zufelt

Budget Manager

Each team member brings varying levels of experience to the project when combined, create a recipe for success. We have large amounts of design and prototyping experience as well as the ability to bring ideas to fruition.