SOLAR IMPULSE by out2theblack

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

SOLAR IMPULSE

POSTED BY: OUT2THEBLACK
UPDATED: Monday, April 12, 2010 08:49
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Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:03 AM

Looks just like a big dang model airplane...

'...Solar Impulse, a prototype of an airplane designed to fly around the world using only solar power, made its first real flight today.

As the sun shone down on the Swiss countryside an aircraft powered by 12,000 solar cells flew for 87 minutes to an altitude of nearly 4,000 feet.'

Read More :

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/04/solar-airplane-completes-maiden-v
oyage/?

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Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:17 AM

BYTEMITE

Hmm... Intriguing.

If you crash it'll still hurt, but at least you don't have the go boom part.

And you also don't have the pollution potential that jet fuel dumping can create. That's a big problem around where I live, especially with the military base up north.

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Saturday, April 10, 2010 6:26 AM

OUT2THEBLACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Hmm... Intriguing.

If you crash it'll still hurt, but at least you don't have the go boom part.

And you also don't have the pollution potential that jet fuel dumping can create.

Fortunately , the wing loading is very light , and the vehicle itself has relatively low inertia...As can be seen in the video , everything tends to happen in fairly slow motion...

One of my good soaring buddies used to be a human-powered aircraft pilot , which is to say , he was also the craft's engine...

Seeing this reminded me of an old video documentary , which won an Academy Award for short subjects , back in the day...

There's a little snippet of it here , which includes a slow-mo crash sequence from early testing of the Gossamer Condor , in which I believe Tyler MacCready is flying on this particular occasion..If you can find the full-length version , there's a much better crash in int , where Bryan Allen is experiencing an uncommanded roll due to the wind , but he can't counter it...It's hysterical , because everything happens slow-mo fashion , except the cursing , which goes something like this :

GORRAMNIT ! SHi+! SHi+! SHi+!

Paul MacCready is gone now , but the company that he left behind is probably being directed to bring 'green' solar-powered bombers to the skies near you...

I got to meet Dr. MacCready a few times , and enjoyed our interactions ; one of my best friends tossed paper planes with him for more than an hour after a conference once...

In this video he also mentions weather-modification and other things that he dabbled in and can't go into :

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Monday, April 12, 2010 8:49 AM

OUT2THEBLACK

Home Page of Solar Impulse :

http://www.solarimpulse.com/

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