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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."
Can a blimp propelled entirely by solar power cross the English Channel?
Well not in winter obviously
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Let's fly our sunlight-powered flying machine in the most overcast place on earth!
As long as it's not like the blimp they tried to use on Top Gear. Big plans, didn't really go so well (winds being quite nasty for them).
Wow, and I thought people did crazy thinks to sneak over the border into the US. It's ok, guys, you can have another chance to get out of your group in four years! It's not the end of the world! Just don't try to mess with the Irish luck next time, they invented the four-leaf clover, you know.
Qxe4
"We're about to find out!"
I think that these are the words that every scientist strives for.
They don't come out too often, but when they do...
The mammoth airship measures 72 feet long and 18 feet wide and has a nylon and polyethylene aluminum frame.
Surely, with an airship so large, the earth will be plunged into darkness as it passes overhead!
In the past France gave the world the Lebel rifle, Areva, Train à Grande Vitess, Minitel ect.
How is the next generation going to embrace entrepreneurship via ~
You should have just taken an existing blimp and put a solar panels on it or something.
Less of Homer and more Herbert Powell.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
3HP and it'll do 25mph. Impressive.
I bet it can't record video at 720p like my cell phone!
Why is it dumb?
which is totally what she said
Why is it so dumb? With the wind in the right direction you can float over the Channel / La Manche with no power in a few hours anyway, it's only 20 miles or so at its narrowest point. They'll have a support boat so even if the blimp crash lands they'll be able to fish the pilot out.
I'd say it's great university students are encouraged to take on technical challenges. I'd say the risks are pretty low (and I am sure they would have been thoroughly checked out by the universities, nobody wants their students dying).
yeah. cause theres no possible use whatsoever for something that can stay in the sky, powered, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It needs to be filled with the free range cow farts for extra green points.
Bleriot did it in 1909. The fact that there's a simple PV motor attached actually makes this less impressive than his original feat over a century ago. I could probably knock up a smaller yet equally effective version with parts from my local electronics shop. It might not be dumb, but it surely isn't news
Did they use solar power to create the helium? Since the helium produces the lift, to be solar-powered it would also need to produce the helium. Running a couple of propellers isn't new. Check out the Helios aircraft from NASA for a true solar-powered aircraft. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/history/pastprojects/Helios/
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flamebait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
It's time for target practice
FTS I thought it was more about the solar panel material they were using for the blimp.
I don't think Bleriot would have been doing it under solar power either.. this thing just seems like a really cool project. Not sure how difficult it is to keep the helium topped up, but apart from that it could just stay up indefinitely and not need refuelling.
which is totally what she said
Maybe I'm just stating the obvious, but a balloon filled with helium doesn't need power to stay airborne, unless things changed since my time. Though who knows, balloons these days...
DARPA (which I'm sure you know doesn't have the same kind of budget) has a project about a radar-equipped solar-propelled blimp that would float @ 10,000 meters and include a battery to stock the solar energy of they day for the night.
They expect is to cruise at 60mph with top speed at 100mph. It is supposed to be operational in 2013
This project could totally be adapted, with extra funding like the one they would get by crossing the Channel, with a bigger structure and a battery, to run day and night.
welcome our flight-capable, solar-powered overlords.
Maybe it's a hybrid airship...
Or more likely, the GP is just being an ass.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
like the superbow in black sunday!
I'm waiting for the day that oil runs out and slow-boat solar is the preferred means of goods transportation. That will the age of sky truckers riding blimps across the land.
And that will give rise to sky-pirates, and my dreams will be complete!
My point was that it is not dumb because it is a reasonably safe yet challenging task for university students to undertake. If things go wrong, they are not in dangerous territories. I'd suggest university students attempting solar blimp navigation across the Atlantic or the Antarctic might be dumb. But 20 miles seems like a nice challenge.
And interestingly my comment got it in the neck for somebody with the opposite point of view, who makes the fair point that just because it's easy for NASA or a large corporate doesn't make it easy for a group of 20 year university students. So for these guys, it probably is a big challenge. In that sense, I think it's great. It's brilliant students are attempting real world challenges, this is what university should be about.
Next up: you laughing at ten year olds for being slow at the 100 metres compared to Usain Bolt?
"Maybe I'm just stating the obvious, but a balloon filled with helium doesn't need power to stay airborne, unless things changed since my time. Though who knows, balloons these days..."
To state the REALLY obvious, which you seemed to miss, is that a helium filled balloon also will not sink in WATER, and thus my suggesting it become a submarine would seem to MOST as a joke--as it was intended to be...and apparently not a very good one.
....about the Hindenburg anyway.
Hydrogen was not the problem. The entire body of the craft was painted in a mix of powdered aluminum, iron oxide, gun powder, and a chemical similar to rocket fuel as a solvent. It's actually amazing that it didn't explode sooner.
Further, over half the passengers on the Hindenburg survived the wreck. Almost NOBODY survives a plane wreck.
For every reason but speed, zeppelins are a superior idea to planes whose time has definitely come again.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Solar dirigible balloon? And to whom they are necessary, would make solar cars is better. And how to you robots-transformers? It is my article, only it in Russian.