Case Study: Solar Impulse achieves record-setting solar-powered flight endurance and optimized aircraft design with MathWorks (MATLAB and Simulink)

Solar Impulse Develops Advanced Solar-Powered Airplane

Solar Impulse set out to demonstrate a solar-powered aircraft capable of flying day and night and ultimately circumnavigating the globe, but faced major uncertainties around solar-cell efficiency, battery performance, wingspan, weight and detailed flight dynamics. To evaluate these tradeoffs and produce high-fidelity simulations and pilot training tools, Solar Impulse used MathWorks’ MATLAB and Simulink (with Control System Toolbox and Polyspace) throughout design, analysis and mission planning.

Using MathWorks tools, engineers built system and aircraft-dynamics models, ran trade studies that reduced the estimated wingspan need from 80 m to an optimized 64 m, developed a Simulink-based flight simulator for pilot training, prototyped air-data and navigation algorithms, and verified code with Polyspace. The MathWorks-driven workflow enabled key design decisions (such as dihedral wing angle), helped pilots manage counterintuitive handling (nose movement up to 10° during turns), and supported the HB-SIA’s nonstop 26+ hour solar-powered flight, with models reused for the HB-SIB program.

Solar Impulse

Ralph Paul

Head of Flight Dynamics and Flight Test