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posted by LaminatorX on Thursday July 02 2015, @11:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the Hawaii-or-bust dept.

Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered plane co-founded by Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg, took off on June 28 on a potentially record-breaking flight across the Pacific Ocean. The BBC reports that the single-seater left Japan's Nagoya Airfield at 18:03 GMT (a little after noon CT) and hopes to reach Hawaii in roughly five days. In total, the flight would traverse 8,200km or approximately 5,095 miles. If successful, the BBC notes the Solar Impulse team will break records for both the longest-duration solo flight and the farthest distance flown by an entirely solar-powered aircraft.

Borschberg and partner Bertrand Piccard hope that the third time is the charm for this endeavor. The plane's first attempt in May was cut short by the forecast causing an unscheduled landing, and the second attempt (occurring last Tuesday, June 23) was postponed for similar reasons. According to the BBC report, the team hasn't aggressively publicized its take off today just in case weather conditions again cause an unexpected landing. At the time of this article, Solar Impulse's official site and Twitter account remained mum on its current progress. The BBC reported the point of no return is set at about eight hours, so Solar Impulse should know within the next two hours.

Solar Impulse 2 has a bigger wingspan than a jumbo jet, but it's light (roughly the weight of a car) and powered solely by 17,000 solar cells. "During the day, the solar cells recharge lithium batteries weighing 633 Kg (2,077 lbs) which allow the aircraft to fly at night and therefore to have virtually unlimited autonomy," the team states on its About page. Of course beyond technical challenges, the human element of this record attempt also present a significant hurdle. Borschberg's space is roughly the size of a phone booth, according to the BBC, and the pilot will only be able to take 20-minute naps throughout this initial leg. If a water landing must happen, the plane contains supplies for its pilot to survive for an entire week during recovery.

What does it take to risk your life like this for a record, or for science?

Follow its flight here


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Friday July 03 2015, @01:41AM

    by frojack (1554) on Friday July 03 2015, @01:41AM (#204504) Journal

    Solar powered Blimps make way more sense. Greater lifting power, indefinite loiter. This thing is bigger than a 747 and can only lift one guy and a box of freeze dried food.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @03:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @03:32AM (#204536)

    Blimps can't lift very much either. They are almost neutrally buoyant otherwise you can't get them to "land".

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday July 03 2015, @03:43AM

      by frojack (1554) on Friday July 03 2015, @03:43AM (#204539) Journal

      Check out the newer designs that are starting to find ways around this issue:
      http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a9787/airship-of-dreams-lighter-than-air-travel-is-back-16292687/ [popularmechanics.com]

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      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday July 03 2015, @12:53PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday July 03 2015, @12:53PM (#204679) Journal

        I am definitely in your camp, and long for the return of airships. My dream is to one day travel the world in a self-sufficient sky yacht, complete with infinity room (chair surrounded by windows), swimming pool, aquaponics room for fresh veg, and a landing strip for "shore" excursions.

        However I wonder if the future of production will not render international shipping logistics irrelevant, or at least radically altered and diminished in its scope. That is, if we're able to combine 3D printing, advanced recycling, and new materials like graphene then we can produce in our homes most of what we currently import and buy at Walmart. Still moving people around will remain and how great it would be to use airships where you can get up and walk around in comfort instead of flying cattle cars...

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday July 03 2015, @03:48AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 03 2015, @03:48AM (#204540) Journal
    You mean airships in general [wikipedia.org].
    Imagine a light-weight super-tensile membrane, stretched over a rigid skeleton, filled with vacuum.
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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @01:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @01:32PM (#204698)

      The problem is that it is hard to get that high-pressure vacuum needed to keep the skeleton from collapsing under the air's pressure.

  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:03AM

    by anubi (2828) on Saturday July 04 2015, @06:03AM (#204948) Journal

    Solar powered Blimps make way more sense. Greater lifting power, indefinite loiter

    I like that the solar powered blimps do not have to spend precious energy trying to balance gravity, and also have a large area ripe for covering with thin solar panel material... Problem is they are so slow an unfavorable wind will make some directions simply not do-able.

    Another good thing about a solar powered blimp is that it would never really have to "land", per se, but get close enough to the ground to lower its hoist cables and anchor itself as well as exchange payloads.

    I have often wondered if solar powered blimps would not make ideal cellphone/internet relay stations.

    Another thing I have been curious about ( being I live in an area that is ripe with smog at times ), is could a blimp be covered in something like aluminum "steel wool", ( lots of sharp edges ) for the purpose of ionizing air so that charged particulates would head for ground, just like the wall behind my air ionizer turns black. The electrons to do this would naturally be forced up the tether cable via a high voltage supply on the ground. I get the idea 5 - 10 KV DC ( negative ) at a few hundred mA oughta do it. I do not have any empirical data to work from, but I know if I drive the voltage too high, I am just going to get ozone - I do know how a surprisingly small amount of electrical energy when used to charge particulate matter will sure drop it out of the air and make it head for ground. A dirigible-sized "Ionic Breeze" if you will. It looks to me like there are some places in China that would be ideal to test such a thing - I have seen stories emanating from China telling me some areas there have one helluva smog problem.

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