Aviation has become the proving ground for an emerging energy concept that, until recently, belonged largely to the realm of science fiction. Researchers recently successfully beamed a tiny amount of electrical power from a moving aircraft to receivers on the ground, marking the first time wireless power transmission has been demonstrated from an airborne platform in flight.
The test was conducted over Pennsylvania using a Cessna Caravan single-engine turboprop flying at about 15,000 feet in challenging weather conditions, including 70-knot crosswinds. Despite the strong winds and turbulence, the system maintained alignment long enough to deliver a small but measurable amount of power to ground-based receivers, validating the ability to transmit energy optically from a moving source.
The demonstration was carried out by Overview Energy, a Virginia-based startup that emerged late in 2025. While the amount of power transmitted during the test was modest, the company said the flight was designed to validate the core components and control systems it plans to use for a much larger goal: beaming solar energy from space back to Earth.
Space-based solar power
Overview’s approach differs from earlier space-based solar concepts that relied on microwave transmission. Instead, the company is developing a system that converts solar energy into near-infrared light, which is then transmitted in a wide, low-density beam to the surface. The energy can be received by conventional photovoltaic panels, theoretically allowing existing solar farms to accept power beamed from orbit in addition to sunlight.
The airborne test addressed one of the most difficult challenges facing any power-beaming system: maintaining precise pointing and alignment between a moving transmitter and a fixed receiver. From a technical standpoint, the problem closely resembles what a satellite would face when transmitting energy to a specific location on Earth from orbit, while compensating for motion, atmospheric effects, and platform vibration.
The researchers say aviation offers a uniquely practical environment for that kind of validation. Aircraft introduce real-world variables such as turbulence, crosswinds, vibration, and limited payload margins, making them a useful stand-in for orbital platforms without the cost and complexity of a space launch. By proving the system works in flight, Overview argues it has cleared a key technical hurdle on the path toward space-based demonstrations.
Interest in wireless power transmission has grown steadily over the past decade, with defense agencies and academic institutions exploring applications ranging from remote sensing to forward-deployed military operations. In 2025, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency set a record by transmitting 800 watts of power over more than eight kilometers using a laser-based system, though that test involved stationary platforms.
How the technology works
For the tests, conducted in November 2025, Overview says it used the same optical architecture it intends to scale for space, rather than a simplified laboratory setup.
The airborne demonstration was part of a multi-flight test campaign designed to move the technology out of the laboratory and into real-world operating conditions. Overview Energy said it installed its laser and optical transmission system aboard the Cessna Caravan and flew at altitudes above 5,000 meters. On the ground, the company deployed a receiver made up of conventional photovoltaic panels similar to those used in residential and utility-scale solar installations. As the aircraft passed overhead, the system identified the receiver, locked onto it, and transmitted power via a low-density, eye-safe infrared beam, which the panels converted into electricity in the same way they convert sunlight.
According to the company, the test validated the ability to maintain precise beam alignment from a moving platform despite turbulence and aircraft motion, conditions that introduce greater pointing challenges than a satellite in orbit. Overview said the airborne setup used the same laser, optical tracking, and beam-combining architecture planned for future space systems, with batteries and onboard thermal management standing in for solar arrays and radiators that would be used in orbit. The company characterized the flight as the final proof-of-concept step ahead of a planned low Earth orbit demonstration.
Ambitious timeline
Still, significant questions remain. Space-based solar power faces steep economic and regulatory challenges, including launch costs, orbital debris risk, atmospheric losses, and the complexity of transmitting energy safely at scale. While infrared transmission avoids some of the spectrum allocation issues associated with microwaves, regulators would still need to address safety standards, airspace considerations, and environmental impacts before any large-scale deployment could move forward.
Overview’s public roadmap calls for a low Earth orbit demonstration later this decade, followed by geosynchronous satellites capable of delivering megawatts of continuous power. Those timelines are ambitious, and scaling from a brief airborne test to sustained orbital power delivery will require major advances in efficiency, mass reduction, and cost control.
For now, the aircraft demonstration represents a tangible milestone rather than a commercial breakthrough. It shows that wireless power transmission from a moving platform is technically feasible, and it highlights aviation’s growing role as a bridge between experimental space technologies and real-world validation.