Solar plane aims for 'perpetual flight'

Solar plane aims for 'perpetual flight'

www.sbs.com.au

An experimental aircraft, Solar Impulse, is set to take off from a Swiss airbase in the first attempt to fly around the clock fuelled by nothing but the energy of the sun.

Solar Impulse is aiming for the aviator's dream of "perpetual flight" and to prove a point by flying through the night, says the venture's founder, Bertrand Piccard, who was the first balloonist to circumnavigate the globe.

"The great adventure of the 21st century is no longer to go to the moon, because that has already been done, it's about moving society bit by bit away from its dependence on fossil fuels," th

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Related News Links:
www.solarimpulse.com

[edit on 30-6-2010 by 12voltz]

Once again our greatest energy source is being used to power our future.If only we started many years ago instead of relying on oil or Nuclear and it's many risks our future may have had a brighter outlook.Solar ,wind,wave and geothermal power is an alternate reality for this modern civilisation but alas we missed the boat.Maybe next time around
But back to the story ,it will be interesting to see if they can make it through the night and prove the efficiency of this project just dont go flying through any storms.

www.sbs.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Look this is all well and good, but try throwing 300 passengers on that thing and see how far it gets down the runway.

Not saying solar doesn't have applications, but it provides so little energy back its pretty much worthless to the standard consumer.

Originally posted by 12voltz

"If only we started many years ago instead of relying on oil or Nuclear and it's many risks our future may have had a brighter outlook..."

If only they'd listened to Henry Ford in the beginning, cars would never have used a petroleum product at all !!! It wasn't solar, but it was definitely eco-friendly...

Henry Ford's first Model-T was built to run on hemp and the CAR ITSELF WAS CONSTRUCTED FROM HEMP! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, 'grown from the soil,' had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel; Popular Mechanics, 1941.

Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine, designed it to run on vegetable and seed oils like hemp; he actually ran the thing on peanut oil for the 1900 World's Fair. Henry Ford used hemp to not only construct cars but also fuel them.

As an alternative to methanol, hemp has at least one glowing report: the plant produces up to four times more cellulose per acre than trees. And a hemp crop grows quicker than a forest. As for an alternative to petroleuming , growing and harvesting the stuff has much less environmental impact than procuring oil:

Hemp fuel is biodegradable; so oil spills become fertilizer not eco-catastrophes.

Hemp fuel does not contribute to sulfur dioxide air poisoning.

Other noxious emissions like carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons are radically slashed by using "biodiesel.

Hemp fuel is nontoxic and only a mild skin irritant; anybody who,s ever cleaned out an old carburetor with gasoline can confirm the same is not true for petrol.

Growing hemp for fuel would be a tremendous boon for American farmers and the agricultural industry.

Link to Full Article

The solar plane uses Tesla engines? Energy transfer through the air? Best and simple example to understand Tesla energy concepts.

reply to post by midnightbrigade


Just wondering what you consider the standard consumer,because saying that its nearly worthless is a statement i would expect to here from someone who either has ties to an oil or electricity company, lives somewhere with little sunlight or uses a hell of a lot electricity,if thats the case i understand your comment.The aircraft isn't ready to compete with an airbus or boeing and probably never will ,I think it's more of a personal goal for this man who is trying to move forward rather than back.

[edit on 30-6-2010 by 12voltz]