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Solar-Powered Plane Makes First Successful Flight
lilbridge writes "The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered plane covered in 12,000 solar cells, took its maiden flight today in Switzerland. The plane stayed aloft for 87 minutes, performing test maneuvers as well as completing a successful takeoff and landing. With the first test flight behind them, the developers can focus on gearing up for their around-the-world solar powered flight set for 2012."
They won't come close to matching Earth's rotation, so I don't see a point to dragging out the length of night and thus requiring larger batteries.
"Now we're getting to Science -- I love this!" -- Dr. Steven Chu, Energy Secretary confirmation hearings.
Partly cloudy with a 100% chance of crash.
What we need is a solar-powered plane capable of safely carrying a couple dozen people 500 miles.
This represents the first solar-powered flights ever. Not the plane in this article.
I guess we've forgotten:
From the article:
Really? And this is impressive how? Seven years to reinvent existing technology? Puh-lease.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
"an average speed of 70 kph" - "won't come close" is an understatement.
I would think you'd aim to build something that can act as a glider (and the long narrow wings in the picture look like they are) at night. With batteries giving engines when you need them, but not requiring batteries big (and heavy) enough to last the 18 hours or so when the sun is either not visible too low for the solar panels to generate much power.
Either way, you are going to east with the jet streams - that's going to have far more impact than day length variance.
That's the point I think. If it could keep up with Earth's rotation it could be kept under constant sunlight (or, at least, under an extended period of sunlight) roughly like a sun-synchronous orbit.
English is not my first language. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
The article says the plane averages 44mph (70kph). At that rate it will take about 24 days to circle the earth if they tried it in a single flight. Hopefully they will be able to get a little more speed before they try that.
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Sorry, but you've not thought through your objection. The plane isn't jumping straight up, for one thing, and for another, the winds generally blow in a given direction at a given latitude.
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As one of the designers of the system, I have just this to say... gosh, we never thought of that. Looking at the designs again in light of your insightful, informed comments it's clear that we're all insane and or incompetent for designing this thing. We should have realized sooner, but I guess we were all to drunk/high to notice.
END SARCASM
This was designed by engineers with experience in the field. They know all about power to weight ratios, wingspans, and surface areas. The fact that you were able to come up with your objections with about 30 seconds of thought should make you realize that the engineers involved probably came up with the same concerns somewhere along the 7 year development cycle. As for it being miserable to fly... of course it is, this isn't a sport plane or even a transport plane, it's a proof of concept at best (and I don't really see how the concept could ever really be made into anything other than a gee whiz toy).
No. It's "Your Wrights Online"
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So, when you jump in the air the Earth rotates under you? Yeah, I didn't think so
What an extremely funny comment - obviously you've never taken a long flight. Take off from San Francisco in the morning and go to somewhere in SE Asia on a commercial airliner and the sun will be up the whole way thanks to the plane's speed. BA a few times had "new year's eve around the world" flights because the Concorde was faster than the Earth's rotation with time to spare for refueling.
That's what the GP was wondering about, not you hopping in place, silly. Still, at 70mph, this solar plane doesn't have a chance.
It's just an underpowered and fragile disaster waiting to happen.
Saying this about a project an engineer has devoted 7 years of their life to is an attack on that engineer. It implies that they don't know what they're doing, that they're uninformed, that they're idiots. Thinking that you can outsmart someone who is demonstrably more knowledgeable and experienced about the subject (unless of course you happen to have a solar powered plane in your garage) insults that person.
The plane stayed aloft for 87 minutes, performing test maneuvers as well as completing a successful takeoff and landing.
Gosh, that is novel. So first it flies for 87 minutes, does several maneuvers and THEN even manages a successful takeoff. Didn't see that one coming. I thought it had crashed on takeoff, but no.
The expression "as well as" does not imply when this successful take off occurred within those 87 minutes. Reading between the lines as you stated and applying a touch of logic would imply that the take off was the first thing to happen within the time mentioned. Also, just because an airplane is capable of powered flight, does not necessarily make it capable of an unassisted take off. If only 87 minutes of powered flight was mentioned, the plane could have been dropped from a balloon and crashed into a barn at the end of its flight. If you are going to be pedantic, at least be thorough.
Pedantic? You bet.
No, not really.
What passes for pedantry on /. has really gone down hill over the years in my crotchety old opinion. It's gone from nitpicking the usage of words that actually have highly specific technical definitions that it actually makes sense to be pedantic about, to trying to find the stupidest way to fail to understand everyday English sentences.
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Or study some weather. It is called the Coriolis effect (if I'm spelling that correctly).
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