With the rapid development of aerospace field and the continuous opening of low altitude areas in the world
the application of various drones has increased significantly
which results in sky environmental pollution problems
and drives many countries starting clean sky projects. Meanwhile
higher property requirements of drones pose new challenges for composites applications. In this paper
a structural energy storage carbon fiber composite (SESCFC) is fabricated by integrating energy storage core to the ultra-thin carbon fiber composite package
and its electrochemical performance is tested with and without loading. Furthermore
SESCFC is integrated into the wing of self-designed drone
and the improvement on the weight and flight endurance of the drone is evaluated. The results show that the energy density of SESCFC approaches 13.2W·h/kg
and that the power density approaches 119.6 W/kg. Under loading of 1200N
the energy density of SESCFC increased to 14.5 W·h/kg due to space compressed between the electrodes. Compared with drones driven by Li-battery
the flight endurance of the drone with SESCFC increases 20%
and the self-weight decreases 37.5%. Compared with solar panel-driven drones
about 20% lightweight effect has been achieved. The results are helpful for structure-function integrated design of carbon fiber composites and their application in drone design.