Xi'an helps with maiden flight of fully solar-powered drone

The Qimingxing 50, or Morning Star 50, China's first large, fully solar-powered drone, took off at 5:50 pm on Sept 3 from an airport in Yulin city of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, and remained airborne for 26 minutes before landing.

The drone was developed by the First Aircraft Institute of Aviation Industry Corp of China based in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi, and this was its maiden flight.

Propelled by six solar battery powered electric motors, the unmanned drone is designed to conduct long-duration operations in near space.

It uses efficient, clean, green and environmentally friendly solar energy and can stay in the air for a long time to perform high-altitude reconnaissance, forest fire monitoring, atmospheric environment monitoring – as well as geographic mapping, communications relays and other tasks.

The successful flight of the unmanned drone is widely said to have paved the way for the development and future model approvals of large-scale, solar-powered drones in the country.

Moreover, it is seen as furthering promoting the development of key technologies in the country's new energy field, composite materials field and flight control field – and is expected to improve the country's ability to perform tasks in near space and over oceans and seas.