Unmanned Solar Plane – BBC News Bite 8.24.08

BBC News reports (August 24, 2008) that an unmanned solar powered plane or UAV has completed a record-setting three days in flight. This test flight is important because it demonstrates that an unmanned solar plane can power up its batteries during the daytime hours and then fly all night long on the stored energy. This would enable the plane, called the Zephyr-6 (and manufactured by the UK firm QinetiQ) to be used to scout out enemy territory very consistently over a long period of time.

Important technologies mentioned in this article:

• Ultra lightweight carbon fiber frame
• Amorphous silicon solar arrays that can be glued to the wings of the plane
• Rechargable lithium-sulphur batteries
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

New CEAS Faculty Members

I had the fortune to meet two new faculty members in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences today at the luncheon for new faculty. They are:

Dr. Sarah Shao – Civil and Construction Engineering

Dr. Peter Gustafson – Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering

Also, after two years as a research associate in the department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Dr. Upul Attanayake is returning as a tenture track faculty member.

Welcome Doctors Gustafson, Shao and Attanayake!

CEAS E-News 8.12.08 Sunseeker Team

Jerrie Fiala, a faculty member in the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering department, recently posted the PDF of a CEAS e-Newsletter discussing this year’s WMU Sunseeker team.  If you do not know what Sunseeker is, it is the College of Engineering’s solar car racing team that designs, builds and then races its solar car in the North American Solar Challenge (NASC) each year.  This year, they were eliminated from the Challenge due to a solar panel array being damaged due to wind conditions.  But they demonstrated tremendous sportsmanship and committment to engineering and to their project by continuing to show their vehicle at each stop of the race, and assisting other teams.

You can access other newsletters about WMU’s College of Engineering here: http://www.wmich.edu/engineer/newsletter.htm