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Topic: Nasa / Space

Solar plane pioneer prepares for US takeoff

Summary: Solar airplane developer Solar Impulse has planned a flight from San Francisco to New York in another step in its quest to provide low-cost, eco-friendly air travel.

Andy Smith

By |

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(Image: Solar Impulse)

US flight from sea to shining sea

The age of aviation adventures is back. Solar Impulse pilot André Borschberg hopes to join the ranks of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhardt as his company seeks to make new flying records for its solar-powered airplanes. Their next adventure will be an intercontinental flight across the US, from San Francisco to Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, or St Louis, before landing in Washington DC, then taking off for their final destination, New York City.

Solar Impulse has already completed several record-breaking solar flights, including the first night flight and one across the Mediterranean Sea. The next big goal of the company is to fly around the world in 2015.

In this gallery, we'll take a look at the Solar Impulse planes, records, flight history, and how they fly.

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Topics: Nasa / Space, Travel Tech

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15 comments
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  • cheap airline tickets

    I don't expect airline tickets to become any cheaper. The fuel portion of the ticket is already small.
    danbi
    Reply 2 Votes

    • Re: The fuel portion of the ticket is already small.

      Then why do newer aircraft like the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 make such a big deal out of their fuel-efficiency?
      ldo17
      Reply Vote

  • A bit of nonsense

    "low-cost, eco-friendly air travel"
    Solar impulse has nothing to do with low-cost or eco-friendly or air travel. It is an attempt to advance technology that would provide relatively inexpensive way to have aerial surveilance/communication platform that would not require refueling and would be available 24/7.
    paul2011
    Reply 4 Votes

    • exactly

      only big brother needs to get all happy about this, as it will in no way advance people flight.
      timspublic1@...
      Reply 1 Vote

      • re: nonsense

        I'm going to assume that even a 100% efficient solar cell couldn't power a larger plane with comfy seats, passengers, luggage, food service & the like.
        gtvr
        Reply 2 Votes

        • You would assume correctly.

          Incident sunlight is 1.1 kW per square meter. That sounds like a lot until you realize that a 747 uses 90 MW of power to get airborne, and 45 MW of power to maintain cruise. That's 81,000 square meters of solar panels at 100% efficiency.
          baggins_z
          Reply 1 Vote

    • There is a valid reason to do it as well,over and above the sinister.

      One use for very high altitude stationary aircraft is "local" satellite equivalents, sustaining a pylon turn circa 200,000 feet and serving to create multiple telecom "islands" in large metropolitan areas. Such "small sats" would be able to provide broad spectrum Wi-Max for tens of thousands without depleting the available bandwidth per area.
      A pretty solid idea.
      mykmlr@...
      Reply Vote

  • *transcontinental

    If it doesn't leave the continent of North America, it isn't intercontinental. Transcontinental is to traverse, cover, cross the continent.

    Sorry.
    MarknWill
    Reply 5 Votes

  • The first pic of the series is awsome

    I imagine that would freak quite a few people out, if this likely silent (as it's electric) row of lights passed overhead. :)
    William Farrel
    Reply 1 Vote

    • Silent?

      Propellers make a lot of noise...and I believe there are 4 of them.

      As for making travel efficient or low cost? It's slow, so how much is your time worth? You could take a sailing ship to travel to Europe from the US. I guess you could call it "green", but I don't see that replacing air travel or diesel powered shipping.
      Uber Dweeb
      Reply 1 Vote

      • Silent as in only the propeller noise

        "likely" silent was the term, should have used "relatively" ( I fly electric R/C's at times). With it coming towards you and no loud jet/piston engine noise, it would probably take a few by surprise.

        As for replacing air travel or diesel powered shipping, I agree. Nice start, but not even close yet.
        William Farrel
        Reply 2 Votes

  • well . . .

    "As in the days of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Erhardt, there's only room for one pilot in a solar plane. But who knows what the future will bring? Imagine what an airplane ticket would cost if airlines didn't have to pay for fuel?"

    Well, for one, solar power isn't advanced enough for large aircraft yet. Just to get a *single* pilot to stay in the air meant making it hyper-lightweight, covering the entire thing with solar panels, and making it as wide as an Airbus 340.

    Also, solar power means you can't fly during night. And you know as well as I do how slowly battery technology has been crawling - after many years, we still don't have the battery power we would like for our ever-fancier electronics or electric cars.

    The technologies Charles Lindbergh had to deal with were all quite young - all were bound to have breakthroughs and just get better. Indeed, a major breakthrough would eventually be the jet engine - something that really made modern airline possible.

    We'd need similar major breakthroughs in solar and battery technology to make it feasible for airliner scale flights.
    CobraA1
    Reply Vote

    • There isn't enough power in sunlight to power

      a jet. See my post above. At 100% efficiency, a 747 would require 81,000 square meters of solar panels.
      baggins_z
      Reply Vote

  • Humble beginnings

    I suppose I can agree that many beginnings of "new things" are humble as this one is. However as many have noted, the likelihood of this sort of tech reducing the cost of airline tickets, at least any time in the next 50 years, is almost zero. And even if, technically, it did lower the costs, do any of us REALLY believe the airlines would pass those savings onto us? Not only will aircraft be more expensive to build - at least until the technology becomes very "common" - but maintenance and such is likely to be easily as expensive as existing technology: possibly more. I like the thought of us going off "fossil fuels" and many levels, but the truth is that those who control the energy production on this planet care nothing for us other than our wallets and how they can manipulate us. The corporatocracy that runs this planet see us as nothing more than a bunch of cash-cows that need to be coddled, fed, controlled and kept subservient. "They" are not going to give us any more than they absolutely have to in order to keep us "happily" enslaved in our gold cages.
    naibeeru
    Reply 1 Vote

    • word fix

      Hate the way one can't edit an initial post. Where text reads "and many levels" it should be "on many levels"
      naibeeru
      Reply Vote
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