World's First Solar-Propelled Blimp To Cross English Channel

An anonymous reader writes "Can a blimp propelled entirely by solar power cross the English Channel? We're about to find out! Nephelios, the world's first solar blimp, was built by Projet Sol'r — a collaboration between students at engineering and technical schools in France. Now, almost a year after its debut (and a year after it was supposed to launch), the helium-filled airship is ready for action, with its inaugural flight set to take place next week. The blimp is covered in semi-flexible solar cells that can generate up to 2.4 kilowatts — enough to keep the blimp moving at 25 mph as it crosses la Manche."

Comments

This sounds like a good idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's fly our sunlight-powered flying machine in the most overcast place on earth!

Re:This sounds like a good idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, if it works there....

Re:This sounds like a good idea.

[mrjb]

Let's fly our sunlight-powered flying machine in the most overcast place on earth!

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.
First of all- the blimp is not going to crash- helium, not solar power, is what makes it fly. Solar power is just used to propel it.
Second, it's possible to fly above the clouds.
Third, it's going to fly across the channel. Even if it crashes, it's most likely to land on water.
Fourth, aircraft regulations require avoiding densely populated areas if at all possible so even if it crashes on land, it will most likely miss any houses or other important buildings.
Fifth, if against all odds said blimp crashes on land in a populated area, it's filled up with helium, not with hydrogen- so it won't burst into flames and as such it would be a lot less eventful than the Hindenburg. Which was a commercial craft anyway (with paying passengers on board), rather than a somewhat experimental craft attempting to cross the channel.