Projet Sola is an EPFL student project developing a 3-metre solar-powered unmanned aircraft, or solar UAV, designed to demonstrate long-endurance electric flight. Prototype IV targets at least 8 hours of flight using onboard photovoltaic energy, while keeping the aircraft light, stable and technically transparent.

Beyond the endurance challenge, the project is becoming a practical flying platform for experimentation. Our goal is to offer EPFL laboratories and startups a real airborne testbed for algorithms, embedded systems, energy-management strategies and sensing technologies that need to be validated outside the lab.