On the morning of the summer solstice, Connor Luce took to 60 Acres park in Redmond, Washington. There, he flew a solar-powered plane, the year-long efforts of Palouse Aerospace. The plane took off at 7:33 a.m. and landed at 7:13 p.m., flying just short of 12 hours.
Palouse Aerospace is a WSU student organization that focuses on building rockets and planes. Founded in 1995, the group participates in various competitions across the country, showcasing their work.
Luce, WSU sophomore and mechanical engineering major, joined the Aerospace club his freshman year, and eventually became one of the team leaders in the solar-powered plane project.
The team began conceptualizing the solar-powered plane last summer. During the 2023–24 school year, Luce and other engineers spent several hours each week on its construction. The team utilized their club funds to pay for materials they did not have in storage. Others, such as carbon fiber, were gifted to them.
Having spoken to collegiate aerospace programs, such as Stanford University, University of California, Irvine, California Polytechnic State University and others, Luce said other schools have built similar planes but not to the degree the Palouse group has.
“I’m pretty confident saying that it’s definitely the longest undergraduate solar plane flight in the U.S.,” Luce said.
Though the plane was being flown in circles for the duration of its flight, Luce said it totaled around 230 miles — a little less than the distance between Pullman and Seattle.
“We really want to make a larger solar plane, something that could last potentially overnight,” Luce said. “It would basically be identical except we’d just scale it up.”
Luce, who wants to go into the aerospace field, said the work he’s done with Palouse Aerospace has helped him in the classroom with particular calculations.
“I just went in and, you know, a year later, we have this cool project that I’ve been wanting to do for years,” Luce said. “ I think that’s generally true at WSU. If you just put in the time and are actually trying to be engaged with the community, there are resources here to get projects done.”
Donations can be made to the club by reaching out to [email protected] or visiting foundation.wsu.edu/give and searching Palouse Aerospace.
