Swiss pilot makes history in solar plane

thelocal.ch ^ | 6 June 2012 | AFP

[mylife]

28 miles in 19 hours!
Awesome! /s

[mylife]

You know why homer was exhausted?
He prolly spent 19 hours trying to prevent the wings from coming off.

[Cowboy Bob]

I thought this was a story about a man planning a flight to the Sun. :(

[mylife]

My mistake, they never say what the distance of the flight was.
Unless I missed it.

[mylife]

2500 Kilometers

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/06/06/solar-impulse-completes-world-record-flight-from-spain-to-morocco/

[mylife]

1553 miles

[smokingfrog]

Cruise speed is 43 mph.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Humongous light craft.

No idea how much it could carry in passengers or cargo. I get the idea that there was no capacity to spare, even under bright clear skies. Still, why couldn’t photovoltaics be used to help ease the fuel usage of conventional aircraft that commonly fly above the clouds? As in lightening the load on generators? It needn’t be anywhere close to a total solution to be useful.

[mylife]

You could set an intercontinental record with way less work ☺

[HiTech RedNeck]

Talk about leisurely. Though this is airspeed, and doubtless this thing had a stiff tailwind on that course...?

[mylife]

Not bad.
I wonder what it costs?
I bet half the route or more was dependent on thermals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_glider

[fabian]

Hope it wasn’t too windy! That looks pretty frail.

[The Cajun]

. Still, why couldn’t photovoltaics be used to help ease the fuel usage of conventional aircraft that commonly fly above the clouds?

Adding drag to wings and fuselage, flying off of wings and fuselage at inopportune times doing 400-500 MPH..........Just guessing.

[mylife]

I hate light craft in high lift areas.
Some folks love it.

I bet he picked up thermals of the Mts and ascended to a very high altitude and then used solar power to assist staying aloft across the Med

At any rate for all of my snarking... Bravo!

[HiTech RedNeck]

Of course this would mean with units that can be inlaid into the body and wings to create a smooth surface.

[fluorescence]

The 2500km figure is for the whole week...

The 19 hour journey being celebrated was only from Madrid to Rabat, which is 477 miles according to Google Maps.

[mylife]

That’s pretty pokey

[mylife]

[The Cajun]

Boy that looks like a little a** buster if there ever was one, LOL.