Posted on 04/24/2016 12:44:35 AM PDT by nickcarraway
An experimental plane flying around the world without a single drop of fuel landed in California after a two-and-a-half day flight across the Pacific.
Piloted by Swiss explorer and psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse 2 touched down in Mountain View just before midnight (3 a.m. ET).
Images of the elegant solar aircraft, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but only weighs about as much as an SUV, flying over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay mark a significant achievement. The team has seen the project beset with problems and setbacks during its pioneering airborne circumnavigation.
"I'm very happy that everything works extremely well and the airplane is functioning as it should," Piccard's business partner and the plane's other pilot, Swiss engineer Andre Borschberg, told CNN by phone from California just ahead of the successful, on-schedule landing. "It's a demonstration that the tech is reliable."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
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Limited uses but combined with drone technology it could be 24/7 surveillance without the need to land and refuel. Of course changing weather may create problems.
yeah, I was gonna ask is this some big event or in the real world would it be horrifically cost prohibitive.
though to greenies, no prices is too much to pay not to use oil.
Not impressed. Wake me up when you can power a 747 with solar power. Until then I guess it’s still fossil fuels.
A lot of research is expensive. We will not know the real cost/benefit ratio until a practical use can be found for the technology.
I do not see this as a strictly “green” technology. Advancement in battery technology is always useful.
As I said in my post, an eye in the sky that can remain aloft almost indefinitely has some uses.
It’s a beautiful craft.
For those who equate batteries with Satan, I was watching a WWII documentary on submarines. They couldn’t function without batteries. They could have used smaller, greener ones at the time.
Also an internet wireless node inthe sky.
My German great grandfather was an entrepreneur in Danzig, Germany. He owned several battery factories around 1890. All was lost when the Russians and communism came in 1945. I’ve often wondered if the batteries were used in German WW I and/or WW II submarines.
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