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Solar Plane Completes 24-Hour Flight
asukasoryu writes "An experimental solar-powered plane landed safely Thursday after completing its first 24-hour test flight, proving that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night. The record feat completes seven years of planning and brings the Swiss-led project one step closer to its goal of circling the globe using only energy from the sun. The team will now set its sights on an Atlantic crossing, before attempting a round-the-world flight in 2013." We ran a story about the flight's departure yesterday.
than Delta.
we just had a story about this yesterday
I think that this technology will show up in military drones before we'll ever see it in general aviation. It sounds great for smaller drones that can stay aloft without ever needing to refuel. Speed is also going to be a huge factor. Most drones, I would think, do not need to fly that fast as most can be launched near the location in which they need to patrol.
Ok, it works fine on one of the days of the year that has the longest period of daylight, but how well does it work on a day that has the shortest period of daylight? Just because something works in optimum conditions doesn't make it noteworthy.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
Which makes me wonder, can enough energy be gathered to help offset the cost of jet fuel in existing commercial planes? You are above the clouds so you have a steady supply of power, but I dont know anything about the amount of energy a jet plane needs. Perhaps solar cells just aren't efficient enough yet? If that is the case, how efficient would they need to be?
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
Um, maybe not. Huge wing span and slow? Perfect target. Not a useful payload. Hugh amounts of electronics needed by a drone and....the military doesn't care about the costs of fuel or operation. Land it. Fuel it up. Send it out again. This is not a military technology.
We'll see this improve over time where costs will come down and eventually people that like to fly gliders, or hang glide or whatever (and have tons of money) will have items like this for play. We'll probably also have the technology begin to pop up in other areas, but military...I really don't think so.
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Seriously, look at the photographs. This thing has a 60m wingspan, is covered in cells, made of carbon fibre and weighs just 1.6 tons. It's fantastically light for its size - I shudder to think how much more efficient your solar cells would need to be to get even a small passenger airliner in the air.
The flight took 26 metric (Swiss) hours. :-)
Wasn't aware of imperial hours existence
From the article:
But while the team said this proves that emissions-free air travel is possible, it doesn't see solar technology replacing conventional jet propulsion any time soon.
Instead, the project's overarching purpose is to test and promote new energy-efficient technologies.
I think the goal of the project is more to 'promote solar energy' rather than to develop a commercial airliner.
If they wanted to produce a useful airplane, they would probably use solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen on the ground, and use the hydrogen as fuel for some kind of jet/prop engine. This would be far more practical than using 400kg of Lithium-ion polymer batteries to store the energy and they would probably end up with a plane that can to some degree compete with todays planes in terms of capacity and speed.
It can carry a cargo of 100 passengers and their luggage. Oil is going to be a part of our economy for a very, very long time...
they really should put some large solar panel surfaces on the middle part, have some large wing areas sticking out from the middle, not really for lift, but to gather more sun. im kinda suprised they didnt make the wings longer from back to front, for more solar panel area.
Still I'd like to have one in the shed so I can take it out for a cruise on a nice sunny day.
and if I dont feel like going for a cruise on a sunny day I'll just leave it outside, connected to a grid tie inverter
If they wanted to produce a useful airplane, they would probably use solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen on the ground, and use the hydrogen as fuel for some kind of jet/prop engine.
Then you would have to land to refill. The purpose of this kind of aircraft is that you can load it down with some electronics, radio, or other sensor package, and let it loiter over an area for months on end. Ideal for surveillance drones, atmospheric testing, flying cell transponders, etc...
What they proved is that they can make it through the night with fully charged batteries. What they didn't say in the article is whether the batteries would be charged back up by tonight if they had stayed aloft.
Still an impressive feat, but I'll be even more impressed when they can show that it fully recharges while in flight.
all I read are the precursors to an affordable, 24/7, domestically deployed Panopticon system. Gotta think of the children, and if you have nothing to hide...
The military spends the money to perfect it, or at least bring it to a generally useful stage. At the point that commercial interests get their hands on it, most of the major bugs in the core functionality have been worked out, allowing the erstwhile vendors to spend their money adding bells & whistles. By the time we consumers get our grubby paws on it, the major pitfalls have been addressed.
Researchers and scientists have always puzzled me!! Ok, so the plane made it from dawn to dawn without running out of power during the night. WHY are they going to wait 3 more years to keep going all the way around the world? This happens all the time. I never understand what the hold ups are for. Bring lots of food and water and keep that damn thing going! I don't know what he's planning on doing with his waste though...ewwww. But I know it won't take 3 years to come up with a solution.
Ok well, that's even MORE REASON to try the world-flight NOW.
Hmmm we need a bigger one that can carry people though.
Why on earth would this be a troll? The estimate seems to be in the right ball park.
Unless the batteries contained at least as much charge on landing as they did at takeoff, this does not prove "that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night".
The real test will be when the plane can stay continuously aloft for a week or more. That will mean they're either collecting enough energy during the day to keep them aloft through the night, or else they've made a major breakthrough in battery technology, which would be even more exciting.
-deane
Well I learned that American Airlines now has Wi-Fi in-flight. The blurb next to the video preview told me so. And in case I missed it, the big 20-second ad comes up before the Solar Plane video, helpfully building anticipation. Then in case I forget, I get a nice reminder at the bottom of the video, all the way up to the infomercial.
Has msnbc always been like this?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
There are a lot of possibilites if this can be developed. The roof of cars could be solar panel(s). This would be in addition to the electric cars power source and once the cost of producing solar panel comes down perhaps more people will use it on their homes. Of course; it doesn't look good so that could also be a deterent to the look of your home.