The German electric airplane maker PC-Aero is at the Berlin Air Show this week unveiling its latest effort towards making sport flying not only solar powered, but mobile as well. The company’s Elektra One is a single-seat electric airplane that uses both batteries and solar cells to increase the endurance during flight and is capable of flying more than 100 miles per hour.
The airplane made its first flight in 2011 in the hands of veteran test pilot Jon Karkow. Designed by Calin Gologan, the Elektra One is part of a bigger package Gologan imagines will one day lead to pilots being able to fly without needing an external power source.
PC-Aero has been touting the idea of a solar hangar that could be used to keep the Elektra One for a few years now. The design would include enough solar panels to provide 2.4 kilowatts of charging. Now the company is expanding, or at least mobilizing, the idea of a solar hangar as a power source.
via Wired
Image: PC-Aero