Around the World in a Solar Plane

Posted by michael on Friday November 28, 2003 @03:07AM from the stormy-weather dept.

Coati writes "Bertrand Piccard, the guy that flew around the world in a balloon, wants to do it again, this time in a solar plane."

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Glider by penguinoid · 2003-11-28 03:21 · Score: 5, Interesting

People can stay in the air for several days in a glider. They use upward currents to gain height. You know, fly over a desert in the day, and over a forest at night.

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Re:Everyone asking 'can it fly at night' by Robert+Osfield · 2003-11-28 03:55 · Score: 5, Interesting

My guess is that they will probably climb during the day and charge batteries then glide all night with a small power draw to the batteries extending the glide. If they can climb enough during the day then they might not need to use batteries, and just glide until the morning. It should be possible to build such a machine with less than 100ft/min sink rate, perhaps even 50ft/min. Thanks 3000-6000 ft lost per hour, 8 hours is 24000-48000ft height loss. Manned flight makes this more complicated though with needing oxygen and heating the pilot at high altitudes.
Remember Helios? by adun · 2003-11-28 04:07 · Score: 5, Interesting

NASA's little darling solar plane flew at about 90,000 feet, well above any potential cloud cover. You can assume that these guys are planning on the same strategy. But if you plan to send a manned flight up to 90k feet, doesn't that raise a whole slew of logistics questions? i.e., the amount of oxygen needed, the weight ratios to follow, etc...