Not so simple. A 747 cannot get its power from a solar cell. If we really wanted to be independent from foreign oil, we fully have the resources to do just that: the US has twice has much in hydrocarbons in the form of coal and oil shales as OPEC has in the form of crude oil. We could convert other organic waste materials such as sewage sludge. At this very moment, ConAgra Foods is converting the waste from processing Butterball turkeys into a marketable liquid biodiesel. Lastly, we have placed fully 85% of our continental shelf out of bounds from drilling for oil.
see:OSD Clean Fuels Initiative (US DOD PDF presentation):
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/energy_expo/2005/pdfs/t_s4c.pdf
Anything Into Oil from DISCOVER Magazine:
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/apr/anything-oil
By taking much of America’s smaller lighting, utility,transport needs off the standard electric and petroleum grids, you make more petroleum products available at a cheaper cost for the bigger boys like your 747’s. This reduces the need to import foreign oil as our domestic sources will be more able to cover what we do need. If the other technologies you speak of kick in, we’ll be awash in petroleum as well. The Saudi’s could go back to just kicking sand at each other!
If you have electricity, you can make fuels for use in jet engines. More expensive than pumping it out of the ground, but you can do it. The less expensive the electricity is, the more feasible synthetic fuels become.