I am afraid so..insane project..sorta.

I wanna explain this a bit…the flying wing does not have the best Cl…and it has also positive Cm..to compensate this they have down side pods ( that cause massive drag ) to give negative Cm..its like ½ as efficient as it could be.

The modular design of Helios would lend itself to carrying a payload spread evenly over multiple pods; I doubt it could carry a single man (even without a cockpit able to reach 30,000m) without structural failure!

I am afraid so..insane project..sorta.

I guess so.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Schematic_of_HP03_Hydrogen-Air_Fuel_Cell_Configuration.png/675px-Schematic_of_HP03_Hydrogen-Air_Fuel_Cell_Configuration.png

It isn’t just about taking off though. It is about taxying, hangar, ground manoeuvring. There is a reason for the 80m commercial limit.

In addition, the wing will have a huge amount of flex in it with that span (unless you make it very thick) . Bend that may not be possible if it’s covered with solar panels.

I figure the wings can be detachable.

Interesting that according to Wiki it used 560kW engine rather more than your design.

128m span!. There isn’t an airfield on the planet that wil be able to accomodate it! Maybe you should think of a seaplane.

I have a 1/5 scale model here…and other to carry payload to orbit…two different things…same problem with LauncherOne..luckily the craft ( Solar Eagle ) takes off after 100 meter dash.

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Caproni has huge drag…and same wing area as my model…so it is an interesting comparison…my craft wing loading is 1/6th of the Caproni. Power is 1/10th….I’d say the drag 1/10th in my craft..I should calculate it..I found no 3-views of the Caproni.

I hope you are doing more than assuming a speed of 200km/h at sea level!

I see lots of schematics showing great span but what are the penalties in drag for all this wing / fuselage area; the surface area (not just frontal area) will surely be a source of much drag (especially at high speed)?

Some of your earlier schematics mentioned some quite high g-limits. How are you calculating these g-limits for very large spans? A wing that is twice the span will weigh much more than twice as much.

There is program to calculate the stresses.

I figure the speed with the other calculator.

At high the fuselage drag is almost non existent..parasitic drag I mean..due to low density, low viscosity..and its nature.

The fuselage profile is thinner than the wing.

The high speed only happens if the plane has been able to recharge the batteries in thermal before 200 km/h speed at low.

I think I may get higher top speed than 50 km/h in sea level possibly 100-120 km/h with full solar power. But it climbs efficiently at 50 km/h.

Here are some other minimalistic planes with frontal area and weight and min power.

Now I assume it can go 200 km/h at level flight in sea level !

After all….why should it be any slower than existing kites. This also ensures the Mach 0,6 speed at 30 km.

I may have overdone it since now it has 4 times the thrust a 1000 lbs glider needs in level flight.