2018–2020 · Aircraft development and field testing

Bird-inspired solar aircraft and formation flight

A quiet, long-endurance fixed-wing platform developed for ecological monitoring in high-altitude regions, including field testing in Tibet. The aircraft combined an albatross-inspired high-aspect-ratio configuration, solar power, a feather-inspired morphing tail, and early formation-flight experiments.

Liming Zheng and the aircraft team with three bio-inspired solar aircraft during field tests

Three solar aircraft flying in formation

Bird-inspired solar aircraft and feather-inspired morphing-tail configurations — Bird-inspired solar aircraft and its feather-inspired morphing-tail configurations.

Concept rendering of Sunbird aircraft flying in formation — Concept rendering of the Sunbird aircraft flying in formation.

Challenge Cup Top Prize award ceremony — Challenge Cup award ceremony. The project received the Top Prize, the competition's highest award.

Concept rendering of the bird-inspired solar aircraft.

Project context

Northwestern Polytechnical University

Liming's contribution

Liming contributed to aerodynamic, structural, and control-system development; designed the morphing tail; developed PX4 flight-control functions; and served as one of the team pilots across more than 50 flight tests.

Selected outcomes

3.49 m wingspan and 3.8 kg aircraft mass
Lift-to-drag ratio of 17 and theoretical solar endurance of 18 hours
Three-aircraft formation-flight experiments
Top Prize, 16th Challenge Cup national competition (2019)
Five patents covering the morphing tail, wingtip, formation flight, and related mechanisms