Sunrise Solar Powered Thermal Airship has been designed to achieve airborne missions based on low speeds and long flight duration for e.g. observations, expeditions, patrolling, filming or simply for recreational. Compared to Helium, Sunrise offers lower performance however since it utilizes hot-air as its lifting gas, this transportation dramatically reduces operational costs. The Fresnel lens inside this hot-air balloon concentrates the sunlight to heat up air into a focal point that not only to create buoyancy that generates lift but also to fuel heat-powered Stirling engine for propulsion. Sunrise is equipped with 2-axis sun tracking system that allows for the lens to constantly face the sun.

Designer : Metin Kaplan

The system of Sunrise Solar Powered Thermal Airship mixes hot and colder air in the lower section of the balloon in order to generate a homogeneous lifting gas. The great thing about this insulated balloon, it can also act as heat energy storage which means longer flight time even without sunlight. Because any extra energy will be transformed into motion and stored in a flywheel as rotational motion. To move higher and lower, user can change the forward propulsion up or down. Just like in traditional balloons, the system in Sunrise also removes the need to change the amount of buoyant gas during altitude adjustments.

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