Maiden flight Solar impulse 2.

Solar Impulse is the only airplane of perpetual endurance, able to fly day and night on solar power, without a drop of fuel. Our challenge is to attempt the First Round-The-World Solar Flight in 2015. A way for Bertrand Piccard, André Borschberg and their team to demonstrate how pioneering spirit, innovation and clean technologies can change the world.

live.solarimpulse.com...





I have this fantasy about humanity growing up, setting aside their differences and see the bigger picture, imagine what we would be capable of if we stand united.

This is the future, clean and bright.

A world in which we ask, is it possible? instead how much does it cost, or can we make a profit with this?
Well i can dream, but seeing the degeneracy in today's world, that day won't come any time soon.

Solar Impulse is (...) able to fly day and night on solar power

Am I the only one seeing a contradiction in this very statement?

Hint: There is no sun during the night...

Maybe it stores power gained during the day for use during night. But it can't be powered by solar energy in the night, that's for sure!

Nevertheless, I'm glad to FINALLY see something eco-friendly come out. This is really neat. Thanks for sharing! A star and flag from me, definitively.

a reply to: swanne

From airplane to glidder
For more than four hours, the plane flew without any
electricity, slowly gliding downwards. Such energy is called
potential energy. The higher the plane climbs, the longer its
descent. At the beginning of the night, however, HB-SIA lost
altitude faster than expected. But thanks to the Mission
team’s instructions, the pilot was able to avoid areas of
down winds and extend his glide. Around midnight, the
aircraft was at 4’500 feet, slightly less than 1’500 m, the
altitude it needed to maintain until sunrise. André
Borschberg then switched-on the battery power. The surplus
electricity accumulated during the day now served to power
the engines.

Here is a pdf about the flight of Solar Impulse

a reply to: earthling42

Thanks mate, I can't wait to read more about this neat piece of tech.

Im just wondering what kind of applications this could be used for, besides the typical military spying. It would want to stay pretty light if its gliding while at night. What they should of done, was set off in the morning, and chased the sun their whole trip, never letting the sun set on the solar glider.

a reply to: Glassbender777

Unless you're on polar regions (and during summer), chasing the Sun is a high-speed chase.

The Earth's equator is about 24,901.5 miles long. The sun covers this length in 24 hours. Which means at the equator, you'd have to chase the Sun at 1,037.5 miles an hour...

a reply to: Glassbender777

There was actually talk a few years ago about putting something like this up at high altitude and letting it loiter 24/7 and using it as an internet/communications relay system for people out in the boondocks that can't get phone and internet service.

For everyone who is interested in following the flight, the departure is 3 march.

Twitter

a reply to: earthling42

What an amazing aircraft.
I just watched this Sky news UK vid which is worth a watch:

news.sky.com...

People should not scoff and laugh at this.
Solar tech and battery tech is getting lighter and more efficient fast.

originally posted by: Glassbender777
Im just wondering what kind of applications this could be used for, besides the typical military spying. It would want to stay pretty light if its gliding while at night. What they should of done, was set off in the morning, and chased the sun their whole trip, never letting the sun set on the solar glider.

~Dunno Zaphod may correct me but it would be pretty crap for spying as there is no way you could add stealth to it as far as we know. The solar panels would light it up on Radar like a Christmas tree as you cant put any sort of stealth covering on it.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Agree, we have to start somewhere in order to develop this technology.
It might not seem very promising now, but we will get there.

Thanks for the link