ABSTRACT
Solar powered HALE UAV is a kind of long endurance flight vehicle powered by solar energy and flied in the stratosphere at an altitude of 17-20 km for more than six months (Cestino 2006). The flying height makes the UAV capable of advantages that satellites and conventional vehicles are not equipped. And as solar energy is characterized by green environmentalprotective quality and infinity, Solar Powered HALE UAV has been shown to have promising application in both military and civil fields such as forest fire mapping, flood control, hurricane tracking, agriculture remote sensing (Herwitz, Johnson et al. 2002) and surveillance mission, relay communication. Many countries are focused on the development of this kind of UAV and its related key techniques.
