Solar powered plane completes history making cross county flight, lands at JFK

Solar powered plane completes history making cross county flight, lands at JFK

www.washingtonpost.com

NEW YORK — A solar-powered aircraft completed the final leg of a history-making cross-country flight Saturday night, gliding to a smooth stop at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The Solar Impulse touched down at JFK at 11:09 p.m., completing the final leg of the cross-continental journey that started in California in early May. For Saturday’s final leg, the aircraft left Dulles International Airport a little before 5 a.m.

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I'm not sure of the technical aspects of this plane, it's probably not feasible to expect a solar powered passenger plane anytime soon, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. Imagine air travel without all the expensive jet fuel, it might actually be cheap again to fly someday. I won't hold my breathe though, lol, but regardless I found this to be interesting and entertaining news. Hope y'all enjoy the article.

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

Just wait til Raytheon puts this on a drone. (If they haven't already.) Then we'd have drones that can stay over our heads day and night, indefinately, without needing to land.

reply to post by Heliophant


No, I wouldn't worry about that. That would be perpetual motion. Which is impossible. Bearings and motors wear out and have to be maintained and eventually replaced.

reply to post by dave_welch


Ok, then drones with solar tech would be able to stay up as long as the maintenance window was open. Which is a lot longer than the typical handful of hours they usually fly in between re-fueling.

reply to post by Heliophant


Even so, the only thing they'd be able to do would be surveillance. To keep the weight down they'd have to not have a lot of solar cells, they wouldn't be able to have weapons systems or anything like that.

I'm not saying it's a good thing, I'm just saying that it wouldn't be any different than what they already use.

Originally posted by dave_welch
reply to post by Heliophant

 

I'm not saying it's a good thing, I'm just saying that it wouldn't be any different than what they already use.

Except that each spy drone could fly for longer, effectively increasing the size and fluidity of their drone/sensor network.

reply to post by Heliophant


So shoot the damned thing down. Surveillance drones are pretty fragile. Complaining about it won't accomplish much.

Originally posted by TheCrimsonGhost

I'm not sure of the technical aspects of this plane, it's probably not feasible to expect a solar powered passenger plane anytime soon, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. Imagine air travel without all the expensive jet fuel, it might actually be cheap again to fly someday. I won't hold my breathe though, lol, but regardless I found this to be interesting and entertaining news. Hope y'all enjoy the article.

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

edit on 7/8/2013 by TheCrimsonGhost because: (no reason given)

(Origin: Associated Press)

xfinity.comcast.net...

Although it's promoted as solar-powered, what really pushes the envelope with this plane is its miserly energy efficiency, said Solar Impulse CEO Andre Borschberg, the plane's other pilot.

Parts of its wings are three times lighter than paper. Its one-person cockpit is beyond tiny. Borschberg lowers himself gingerly into it for a television camera, grimaces, and practically wears the plane it is so snug on him.

Most of the 11,000 solar cells are on the super-long wings that seem to stretch as far as a jumbo jet's. It weighs about the size of a small car, and soars at 30,000 feet with what is essentially the power of a small motorized scooter. When it landed at Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington after midnight on June 15, its wings were lit with 16 LED lights that used less power than two 100-watt bulbs