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Solar-Powered Airplane Completes First International Flight
liqs8143 writes "Solar Impulse, a fully solar-powered airplane, has completed its first international solar-powered flight. After a flight lasting 12 hours 59 minutes at an altitude of 12,400 feet, using no fuel and propelled by solar energy alone, Solar Impulse HB-SIA landed safely in Brussels, Switzerland. After the landing, company co-founder Bertrand Piccard said, 'Our goal is to create a revolution in the minds of the people . . . to promote solar energies — not necessarily a revolution in aviation.' Compared with 2003, energy efficiency has increased from 16 to 22 percent. And the cells are now half as thick. The project has a total cost of $88 million, which is funded by mostly-Swiss partners and public donations."
That would be _to_ Brussels, _from_ Switzerland, I'm guessing.
Switzerland to Belgium. So it wasn't just a hop across an adjacent border. And, as the summary says, they were in the air for almost 13 hours.
sustainable living
If they had a helicopter that hovered for 13 hours at such a low speed it would be even more impressive.
What, like a party balloon?
Solar Impulse HB-SIA landed safely in Brussels, Switzerland. ... never knew Brussels was part of Switzerland ...O wait ... guess I should go hand in my Belgian passport and go request a Swiss one ....
Damn
Awesome Geography ./ !
So it went through Switzerland, France, and Belgium?
Still not that impressive; I'm working on a boomerang capable of traveling across four US states, which I plan to test in New Mexico.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
To give you, and others, entertainment, of course. Why do you really come here, anyway? Come on, admit it, you LIKE complaining about English; we know....
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I didn't fly across the Atlantic, a savings of 100%
Gently reply
I'm not impressed. Solar planes have been in existence for a while. http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technologies/solarFarm.html I really won't be impressed until it can carry cargo or passengers.
The 'unshorten' site saved me from your troll, but there is a phenomenon I just discovered has a name, which sounds very trollish, called 'cloud suck'. It can keep you aloft for a very long time and even kill you if it carries you too high. Hang gliders beware! And slashdotters beware of almost everybody with a UID over 2000000...
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Actual flight path in title. Approx 660km @ 50km / hr, with cleared airspace due to special needs. See http://www.solarimpulse.com/blog/2011/05/13/all-lights-at-green/ Herzliche Glückwünsche to the team.
It seems to be a publicity stunt. I find it very unlikely that it'll ever be efficient to lug solar cells around on a plane - not to say that there won't be airliners run from solar power, just that generating that power onboard, in real time, seems ridiculously wasteful. The panels add weight, restrict the design, and depend on the aircraft being in the light pretty much continuously; rather than trying to cram a few square metres of solar cells on the wings, why not just use a whole field full of the things on the ground to produce the energy, and load it onto the plane in the form of (say) hydrogen?
Hot air balloons don't generate lift using aerofoils, they float using a large bag of hot lighter-than-the-surrounding air, and they use large propane burners to keep that bag's contents warm - so they do use fuel. They also only have gross control - up and down. Their direction of travel is largely subject to prevailing winds.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
I am deeply sorry, but I have to agree with TheNAM666 here. This does look like a typical American write-up. Just like that time a security lady at an airport in the US was questioning me about why my Dutch passport was made in Switzerland. It got made at the consulate in Stockholm. Or that time when the Israeli border check said the same damn thing.
I have found that both Americans and Israelis have displayed the most spectacular levels of ignorance about the world outside of their own country. More so than other travelers and people I've met in my life. That's not to say all Americans and Israelis are stupid, far from it. It's just that the ratio of numbnuts to decent conversationalists is significantly higher.
Coolest example ever was when Dutch customs at Schiphol airport were looking for something because they were asking every passenger that passed through a certain spot where they just arrived from. They put the question in Dutch first. An American lady in front of me looked at the customs officer and in reply to his "Pardon Mevrouw, waar komt uw vlucht vandaan?" she barked an irritated "I don't speak German".
He smiled, inclined his head and replied "That's alright, madam. Neither do I."
Your statement would be interessting, if it had anything to do with reality.
Yes, the article was posted on a non-American website.
But guess what: The article nowhere says that Brussels is in Switzerland.
So this was added by the editor here at ./ or by the person submitting the story. Either of whom are most probably American.