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Solar Impulse Completes First Intercontinental Solar Flight
An anonymous reader writes "Slashdotters may remember the Solar Impulse — the world's first 100% solar-powered airplane — from last year when it made its public debut. Today the airplane made news again as it successfully completed the world's first solar-powered intercontinental flight — a pivotal step that paves the way for the plane's first trip around the world in 2014."
OK for the solar powered plane I'll let it go this time.
From a continental bullshit-powered basement computer!
FTFY
515 miles isn't impressive for a solar powered flight? Maybe I am naive, but this seems like quite an accomplishment to me. Perhaps you would like to pull something out of your resume that is more impressive?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
piloted their Solar Impulse airplane over 515 miles to their destination in Rabat, Morocco... Furthermore, after almost 20 hours of flight
However when UAVs are approved and if this guy's decendants can carry a decent payload, regular unmanned transportation of goods with a price independant of idiots killing each other in the desert might be important to humanity even if it is slow.
That's still double the speed of Phileas Fogg
Thankfully,. there is a much more polite term for 'slow and works poorly under clouds'.
Just use the phrase "High Altitude and Long Endurance(HALE) Platform", slap an optics module into the nose, and watch the spooks line up to wave cash in your face...
A solar blimp or zeppelin would work better for that usage. That way all energy can go towards forward movement instead of also having to provide lift.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Well, fine, I guess. The article says it took them 20 hours to fly 515 miles. That's about 25mph. So, with necessary rest, etc, around the world in 80 days, basically?
Proverbs 21:19
The thing has a wingspan on 68m, more than an A340. Yet it weighs 1600 kg, about the same as a car. Carbon fiber and epoxy is a pretty impressive combination..
from tfa
The plane, which requires 12,000 solar cells, embarked on its first flight in April 2010 and completed a 26-hour flight, a record flying time for a solar powered aircraft, three months later.
The 515 miles is impressive. But compared to the size of a continent, it seems like they are bragging without merit. Kind of like how it would sounds if you heard that someone ran around the earth in 20 seconds (but they really ran around the south pole). Kind of like a less extreme example of this .
The first car sucked. The first bicycle sucked. It's a goddamn proof of concept, people. Stop shit-talking it, this is how progress is made.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I hear that in its next flight it's going to cross the Pacific, via the Bering Strait.
Yeah, this was over-hyped, but a solar-powered airplane is still pretty darn cool.
Yeah, in this part of the world, 515 miles sounds more like an interstate flight.
I have flown from one continent to another, and it 12 hours by 747 - over 6000 miles. (and up wind too)
If it made it 500 miles I assume the problem was that the sun went down rather than any mechanical reason why it couldn't fly indefinitely.
No sig today...
So all the people seeing this as progress, realize that in 30+ years solar panels have not improved significantly enough to be able to generate the kind of power required to move 2 people, let alone 100 or 300.
This is a nice novelty, but does not harken a new era in solar power flight until there is some fundamental improvements in solar power technology.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
And still no Captain Piccard jokes. You know, I'm really getting worried about you, Slashdot.
Anything you do can get you slashdotted, including nothing.
what happens on rainy days???
Its flight went over 27,000 feet, which is higher than average rain clouds (wiki says around 20,000 feet is typical). It may be able to just fly over the rainclouds. They'll still need to drive around the big storms, just like the big jets have to.
I categorize this as "cool" in the same way a "car" that gets 150+ mpg by carrying a single passenger lying down in an egg shaped vehicle at 5 mph is "cool." Yes, it is progress that a solar powered airplane has flown. That said, there are a lot of things that don't scale, and if it can't carry cargo or people, or get there in anything approaching a reasonable time frame it is a novelty at best.
That way all energy can go into fighting the wind.
24 Hour DHS monitoring drones - not only can they see you and your heat signatures through walls, but they can also intercept your cell phones and wireless networks!
Now I can feel safe!
Why I thought the comment was stupid is that you wouldn't go against the wind in a blimp, you would use the trade winds to enhance it's efficiency. Kinda like the old sailing ships.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Considering that the FAI lists the world record for free distance for open-class GLIDERS at 2259km (1403 miles), then I'd have to agree with GPP that no, 515 miles for a POWERED airplane (even solar powered) isn't all that impressive.
Note: if you just click the FAI link, you won't see the results I'm referencing above. You have to select "DO - Open Class Gliders" in the "subclass" drop-down box, "Free Distance" in the "Type of Record" drop-down box and "World" in the "Record Zone" box. Sorry...I couldn't find a way to link to just the results I found.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Your point still stands, but IMHO (and I live here) flying from Alaska to Russia in anything less robust and redundant than an airliner takes some serious cojones. That water is COLD. You don't want to ditch there in an in-flight emergency.
Crossing Knik Arm outside of Anchorage (maybe two miles wide?) is uncomfortable enough. My former employer used to cross the Arm at 600 feet, until he had an airplane lose power on take-off from Anchorage International (which is on the shores of Knik Arm). He managed to land on the remaining runway, but after that incident, if he couldn't get clearance to cross the Arm at a higher altitude, he took the long way down the arm rather than attempt to cross at low altitude again.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
If the wind happens to be cooperating, great. If not, you have to spend a lot of energy pushing that big fat blimp through the air. So sure, all the energy can go into forward movements, but it will take a lot more of it.
the distance IS impressive. their use of "intercontinental" to describe the distance is not. wouldn't even get across the lengths of some u.s. states.
the significance, i think, of the 515 miles, is that it is the distance between dayton and kitty hawk.
Solar Impulse has already flown continuously for more than 24 hours, to prove that it can fly through the night on battery power alone.
Brought to you by the author of such childrens' classics as "Some Kittens can Fly!" and "All Dogs go to Hell."
They flew an airplane 515 miles using nothing but the sun. They flew. Not drove, not sailed, not floated. It's impressive. Dead impressive. It's a vision of the world that could be.
I consign those who pooh-pooh this to go back and try to do something equally impressive without fossil fuels or equal cheats.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
It's really great that someone is working on this.
However, SolarImpulse is shooting for an eventual round-the-world, non-stop flight. They're even designing a new plane:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse#Planned_second_aircraft_.28HB-SIB.29
There's some major logistical challenges to go along with the technical challenges:
1) They need at least two pilots to spell each other (which means more weight)
2) The new plane would have to go faster - at 70kph, flying 40,000 km would take 24 days
3) There would need to be room for food and water (which, again would mean more weight)
4) They would need, uh, facilities (again, more weight)
I guess you could solve all of these problems by simply scaling up the plane. I think that might also break the record for longest wingspan...