The Dunkin Project: University of Virginia Students Build an Electric Airship

During the past two years, students at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville have been working on a project they call the Solar Airship Program. The goal is to develop a solar-powered airship capable of 24-hour-a-day autonomous flight. The students have built and flown Dunkin, the first of three planned radio-controlled airships that are to be of increasing size and complexity. The students hoped to have a craft ready for the October 1996 World Solar Challenge that runs north-to-south across central Australia. Solar-powered cars have been competing in the event since 1987, but last year was the first time that solar-powered aircraft were allowed to participate. Time constraints changed the UVA students' plans, and they didn't compete.