18-hour Long Flight

A long exposure of the CREATeV vehicle in flight before sunrise.

The CREATeV vehicle flying over the Great Lakes Gliding Club's facilites at CTR3.

The CREATeV vehicle being prepared for flight.

On Thursday, September 16, 2021, the CREATeV solar-powered airplane successfully completed a long flight of more than 18 hours. The aircraft took off and landed in the dark at 3:20AM and 9:27PM, respectively. This flight time was possible despite an unexpectedly strong cloud cover during the day.

The flight was another important step in the development of our 6.3m, 12kg solar-powered aircraft, which has the ultimate goal of setting an endurance world record by flying nonstop for longer than a month. To date, our aircraft has accumulated over 50 hours of flight time and has demonstrated the ability for in-flight charging, night takeoffs and landings, and autonomous navigation.

Check out the CityNews Toronto coverage of our project.

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