Energy density is low that’s why utility scale solar plants are vast (huge area) so energy harvest becomes significant by increasing system size to encompass such large areas. On a plane, we’d be talking about energy harvest of a few hundred watts or low thousands of watts in peak sun even if major sections of the plane were covered in photovoltaic material. Of course energy harvest would be zero at night and just barely more than that when available solar energy was minimal (cloudy weather, etc.).
Jet fuel is tremendously energy dense (9.6 Kwh/liter).
It takes a lot of potential energy to get from 0 to flying. The amount of energy you would get from a solar panel would not be enough to get you off the ground. You would need a lot of stored energy which we get from the fuel. Now whether solar panels will become way more efficient and electric planes will become a thing. Sure. But with the current technology it makes a lot more sense to use chemical fuel to get a plane in the air.
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