Abstract:
Embodiments of the present invention provide an alternative distributed airborne transportation system. In some embodiments, a method for distributed airborne transportation includes: providing an airborne vehicle with a wing and a wing span, having capacity to carry one or more of passengers or cargo; landing of the airborne vehicle near one or more of passengers or cargo and loading at least one of passengers or cargo; taking-off and determining a flight direction for the airborne vehicle; locating at least one other airborne vehicle, which has substantially the same flight direction; and joining at least one other airborne vehicle in flight formation and forming a fleet, in which airborne vehicles fly with the same speed and direction and in which adjacent airborne vehicles are separated by distance of less than 100 wing spans.
Abstract:
Estructura solar de aeronave (200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1510, 1610, 1700, 1810, 1900, 2000) flexible, que comprende: un sistema solar fotovoltaico (220, 320, 1220, 1320, 1615, 1720) que tiene, al menos, un sistema de seguimiento solar (1130, 1330) y que puede seguir la posición del sol para optimizar la captación de la luz solar y la potencia de salida; y un cuerpo expandible (210, 310, 1010, 1110, 1210, 1310, 1710) que tiene una sección transversal aerodinámica que reduce el arrastre del aire parásito a cualquier espesor dado del cuerpo, siendo además, al menos parcialmente, transparente a la luz solar, que contiene adicionalmente el sistema solar fotovoltaico (220, 1120, 1320, 1650, 1720) capaz, además, de cambiar su forma para compensar cambios en una posición del sistema fotovoltaico solar cuando el sistema fotovoltaico solar sigue la posición del sol (1730).