The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — based in Arlington, Virginia — has selected Silent Falcon’s namesake solar-electric fixed-wing long-endurance long-range Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to test the feasibility of remotely charging an aircraft by means of a laser, according to a report by FlightGlobal.

Silent Falcon’s chairman John Brown said DARPA’s (www.darpa.mil) Stand-off Ubiquitous Power/Energy Replenishment-Power Beaming Demo (SUPER PBD) is scheduled to begin testing in January 2019, with the aim of charging the UAS via a laser at a distance of 10km.

This UAS has solar panels on its wings, which allow it to recharge in flight and extend its mission to about 5hr, but Mr Brown says that when receiving charges from a laser, it could — theoretically — fly indefinitely.

The SUPER PBD system is designed to transfer energy by aiming a laser beam at a solar panel on the Silent Falcon’s tail (from an aircraft or a ground station).

Mr Brown said: “The test will be done at 10km, but we expect the range to be significantly increased in the future.”

He has declined to say how much power could be transferred using a laser, but he believes that such a system could eventually be scaled up to power an aircraft with a human passenger.

The Silent Falcon UAS is 7ft long, has a 14ft wingspan, weighs about 35lb, can carry a 3kg payload (such as a camera
for surveillance) and has a ceiling of about 20,000ft.

Other suppliers in DARPA’s SUPER PBD project include Optonicus, which will supply the laser and UAV tracking and targeting technology, and SolAero Technologies and Ascent Solar Technologies, which will provide solar panels that can transform the laser light into electricity.

The SUPER PBD programme is reported to be costing $2.2 million.