NASA Breakthrough For Solar Powered Aircraft

gilgsn writes "Planenews.com just received a news release from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center about a breakthrough in fuel cell technology for solar powered aircrafts and how they used internet technology to broadcast data and HDTV video from the stratosphere above the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Their Helios Prototype could now fly through the night. I am sure that besides public communications, this will interest the military for their drones.."

Comments

Re:Why not gravity?

[spike hay]

yes but would you be gaining more energy then you were loosing the next day by trying to regain that alitude? Unless you have actual data your idea doesn't sound that usefull.

Actually, his idea makes some sense. Of course you would "loose" energy. The laws of physics dictate that you will, whether you store the energy in fuel cells or as potential energy. If you gain more energy than you lose, that would be a perpetual motion machine, wouldn't it?

The previous poster's idea makes a lot of sense. If these solar powered aircraft are efficient at gliding, they would be able to glide all night and lose only a few kilometers, which could very easily be gained back the next day. I think it makes more sense than fuel cells.