oscar viñals' 'solar skin' plane generates enough energy to fly itself

no stranger to futuristic airplane design, barcelona-based oscar viñals has come up with many a plane concept in an attempt to shake up the future of air transportation. his latest project goes by the name of ‘solar skin,’ and is designed to generate 80% of the energy it needs to fly. the eco-friendly craft features a radical external design that completely reshapes the traditional airplane, making for even more aerodynamic to reduce fuel consumption, noise, and emissions.

images courtesy of oscar viñals

viñals describes his craft as a a HSP—meaning hyper shape plane. the futuristic concept takes parts of existing groundbreaking airplane design such as blended wing body design, and combines then with postitive elements from viñals own previous designs. the plane takes the form of one big, smart wing with additional front little wings, rear smart stabilizers and top stabilizers. when testing the design using CFD software, viñals found the plane to be stable, and to keep well balanced between its lift and drag coefficients.

in order to generate the energy it needs to fly, the plane is kitted out with many a renewable power system. as its name would suggest, the plane is covered with a painted film of quantum solar dots to generate electricity, as well as 2 double helix wind turbines on the body of the plane. the craft also uses  thermoelectric generators to generate electricity directly from main engines ‘s heat, based on the ‘seebeck effect,’ along with two hydrogen fuel cells.