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The plane, called Solar Impulse 2, recently completed the longest leg of its global flight -- a five-day, five-night journey from Nagoya, Japan, to Hawaii. During that trip, the plane's batteries overheated and sustained "irreversible" damage, according to a statement from the team.
The next leg of the journey, which would have taken the plane to Phoenix, was set for as early as this week.
The team said the temperature of the batteries during quick ascents and descents in a tropical climate was "not properly anticipated."
"The damage to the batteries is not a technical failure or a weakness in the technology," the team said. "Setbacks are part of the challenges of a project which is pushing technological boundaries to the limits."
I'm looking forward to the next flight record being set by an ornithopter.
Original Submission
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday July 16 2015, @07:13PM
He was the pilot along with a navigator and copilot who made the first flight from the Soviet Union over the Northole to the United States. IIRC they flew for 56 hours.
They were very brave because they flew a single engine plane. There must have been some good reason for that. I wrote image processing code for Verde Technologies in the late eighties. Our thermal infrared cameras helped fight the yellowstone fire because they could see through smoke. mAfterward one of our pilots told me he was very frightened the whole time, and that he kept his eyes fixed on the oil pressure gauge.
That the Communists were not always are enemies is evidenced by their landing at an Army base, Pearson Field here in Vancouver. (It's a civil aviation airstrip now.). Chkalov delivered a message of peace in an address to the people of Vancouver.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lesterofpuppets/3207743491 [flickr.com]
http://www.nps.gov/fova/learn/news/chkalov2015.htm [nps.gov]
"Like the waters of the Columbia and Volga Rivers which flow peacefully on the same planet and eventually contribute to the same world ocean... The peoples of Russia and the USA should live peacefully on the same planet and with coopetative work, beautify this ocean of human life."
-- Valery Chkalov, Marshall House, Vancouver, June 20 1937
My father worked with Talos antiaircraft missile in the Navy. All those he actually fired in anger had conventional warheads but they could be fitted with nuclear warheads as well. An Air Force pilot who was scrambled during the Cuban Missile Crisis when a bear was thought to be an intruder on his base called his own air to air nuclear antiaircraft missile "The stupidest weapon ever invented".
Had the Commander in Chief ever pressed the big red button Dad would have set up Vietnam or the Soviet some bomb. Even so he had a deep respect for the Communist people. He never said but I expect that was because they suffered far more durin The Great Patriotic War.
Dad totally pissed himself laughing when he caught me listening to Radio Moscow.
I studied Russian at Caltech, taught by a Soviet dissident who was expelled rather than imprisoned because Valentina Lindholm's ex-husband was the front page editor of Pravda.
My second Cousin Glenn Thobe speaks better Russian than Vladimir Lenin. He "keeps up" with his Russian by reading Russian physics and electrical engineering journal. I often credit Glenn for single-handedly convincing the Communists to give up their Great Experiment because he "had some connections with the State Department" and so traveled extensively - unescorted - in the Soviet Union.
In reality I expect the State Department launching every Intercontinental Ballistic Vegetarian that money could buy at the Soviets so as to convince them that Americans are really nice people.
I myself seek friendship with America's sworn enemies. I am uncertain I will pursue it but I contemplate teaching Physics in north korea. This because "worker-soldiers" are constructing apartment buildings for the people but they often collapse.
While there are restrictions americans are welcome in NK and Iran. I dont know about syria. An american charity is working to improve north koreas economy. When they asked their hosts what they needed the north koreans replied:
"Goats."
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]