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Solar Impulse 2 Breaks Three Records En Route To Hawaii
Zothecula writes: Solar Impulse 2 has started smashing records even before the longest leg of its round-the-world flight is complete. At around three quarters of the way to its next touch down in Hawaii, the single-pilot aircraft has broken the world records for longest distance and duration for solar aviation, with the record for longest ever solo flight of any kind thrown in for good measure.
It seems that in the modern era of flight, with high tech radio and navigation equipment, and modern weather forecasting, that solo flight isn't quite the feat it used to be. Not to say that this is easy, but it doesn't seem like it is the risky endeavour it used to be, either.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Seriously?
I'm not the only one getting occasional pop up ads for Kroger on the slashdot home page, am I?
Records are almost always broken due to advances in technology, or at least knowledge. Better equipment or better training are consequences of improved knowledge. But it still counts. Even track records are due to better shoes, and new knowledge of how to train the human machine. The four minute mile was once the holy grail of track, now it is routinely run under 4 minutes. Technology plus knowledge.
Since you can't be bothered to actually read the article (yes, I know, who does that?), here is a quote:
"Solar Impulse 2 took off from Nagoya, Japan on Sunday for its audacious five-day flight across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii with Swiss pilot and Solar Impulse co-founder André Borschberg at the helm. It has since stayed in the air for three days and nights without using a single drop of fuel, grabbing the distance and duration records, 5,663 km (3,518 mi) and 80 hours respectively, in the process."
Hoping it's not too much for you to read, you should be able to see that the plane does not fly only during the day.
Well, that doesn't seem to be what is happening:
This isn't some jet engine which does this in a few hours.
You can whine all you want, but the records are real.
They're for solar aviation, which means it's a lot harder and a lot slower.
Call us back when you've done better.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Really? New shoes make you run faster? Physical speed & endurance records are usually broken because of psychology. When the Kenyans started competing in marathons, they weren't winning because of their shoes or because of the teams of scientists training them back home. Often they literally had neither shoes nor coaches.
For any particular record it's easy to point to the shoes or some special training technique to explain what put them over the top. But if you look at the evolution of how any particular record is repeatedly moved over time, it quickly becomes apparent that technology isn't worth nearly as much as we thought it did. And psychology becomes one of the most important critical factors, if not _the_ most important. People train and gauge their progress by what they believe is possible and achievable.
Where technology (i.e. shoes, training, etc) really shines is in preventing injuries. But the time, place, and participants of record-breaking events are mostly anomalous. I doubt the pace of record breaks would slow much if we went back to the prevalence of injuries of 50 years ago, _presuming_ there wasn't a concomitant _psychological_ impact which dissuaded athletes from trying so hard. There are over 7 billion people on this planet, more than enough fodder to throw at breaking records.
And everyone is even less impressed with your accomplishments.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Does it count as a record ?
I get that you're a steaming pile of shit that is disconnected from reality, but there really isn't a reason to showcase it.
Apparently there's no correlation between intelligence and low slashdot user ids.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Birds too fly around the world using clean solar energy. Arctic tern fly twice a year
half the globe with no huge ground navigation and support team
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_tern
It's going to take several days to fly from Japan to Hawaii. In the process he's beaten the record for longest solo flight ever.
Are you asshole? Or do you just play one on the internet?
It's a single person aircraft, travelling at an average speed of 50 to 100 km/h (31 to 62 mph).
Yes, it's not a continuous flight. But it will, nonetheless, be the first time a solar powered aircraft will do it, and every leg is pretty much an epic task.
It's still circumnavigation.
So, boo hoo, you disagree with the terminology. Nobody else gives a damn.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Really? New shoes make you run faster?
How about new suits make swimmers swim faster? https://theconversation.com/fast-suits-and-olympic-swimming-a-tale-of-reduced-drag-and-broken-records-7960
Its one of very few solar powered manned aircraft to have ever flown, of course its going to be breaking records. That "longest ever solo flight" is less impressive when you consider that it HAS to be flown by a single person because built as flimsily as it is it can't handle the weight of a second person. And I am wondering if it is pushing for another record, longest time ever transit time for an aircraft. It left the start on March 9th 2015 and won't get back there until sometime in August. That's almost 5 months, your average commercial jet could make that trip in a couple days. Heck an unpowered balloon circumnavigated the planet in about 20 days and it didn't need to stop a dozen times. Its an achievement to be sure, but not the most practical that I've ever seen.
To be fair most of the circumnavigation treks have stopped at several ports/locations on their trip. I think there is only one case (Breitling Orbiter 3) where the crew didn't stop and weren't resupplied at any point.
It's going to take several days to fly from Japan to Hawaii. In the process he's beaten the record for longest solo flight ever.
The Rutan Voyager airplane flew around the world non-stop in 1986. Steve Fossett did it FOUR times nonstop, once in a balloon and three times in the Rutan GlobalFlyer.
Apparently there's no correlation between intelligence and low slashdot user ids.
The only correlation between intelligence and Slashdot UIDs is not having one.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
i don't think it's even psychology or training programmes, it's the extreme tails of human genetic ability, and finding those really really fucking rare individuals who have the traits necessary to break rcords.
If a sport becomes popular (basketball in the USA, track in Jamaica), more individuals are drawn to those activities. And as a result the odds of finding someone who's genetically gifted for that event increase.
Human beings are not different in a genetic sense before or after Bannister broke the 4 minute mile barrier; what has changed is a wider pool of people competing.
I imagine must take André Borschberg discipline to concentrate on flying and make a good landing after all this time. Then be able get a hot shower and a good meal while sitting at the table!
mfwright@batnet.com
Running a 4 minute mile isn't actually all that hard if you're in shape. I've been a lifelong cyclist--not even a runner in particular--and if I want to run a 4 minute mile, I can do it. I've done two of them back to back in 8 minutes. Sure, I'm pretty much throwing up all over and coughing my lungs out and I feel like shit for the next day or two, but I *can* do it.
So why do people think this is some crazy difficult thing? We expect 17 year old boys to run a 6:06 mile (according to the President's Challenge).
The terminology being used is intentionally misleading.
The way its being said, most people who aren't that interested think its one single continuous flight, which is impressive.
There really isn't anything particularly impressive about this once you take that out of the equation.
Voyager was impressive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
IT actually DID fly around the world without stopping, and it did the entire flight in 9 days, and they didn't stop to take breaks to avoid weather, they flew AROUND a Typhoon FFS.
This solar powered aircraft is more like a training run for one someone actually wants to do it properly.
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