The solar plane and the j-shaped Korean cone- dude, if those things are boring I pity you. You have my pity.
Posted on 04/23/2016 7:32:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The pilot of a solar-powered airplane on an around-the-world journey said Saturday that stopping in California's Silicon Valley will help link the daring project to the pioneering spirit of the area.
Pilot Bertrand Piccard, who left Hawaii three days ago, said he hopes to fly over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge before landing in Mountain View on Saturday night.
"Can you imagine crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on a solar-powered plane just like ships did in past centuries? But the plane doesn't make noise and doesn't pollute,'' Piccard said a live video feed on the website documenting the journey. It's a priority to link
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcbayarea.com ...
you know, staring at the ceiling and looking to see if the vents are clean is more interesting than many of your threads.
The solar plane and the j-shaped Korean cone- dude, if those things are boring I pity you. You have my pity.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say this plane only flies in the daytime. Kind of limits any commercial use.
Nope, they’re crossing the Pacific in it. Batteries and gliding in a controlled descent at night. I suspect it’s a long night, I’ve heard about range anxiety among electric car owners. Imagine worrying about that over the middle of the Pacific.
I say — Good job. We ,as a country have been on he edge. These guys are AMERICANS!!! Welcome them!!
Pretty cool and it will keep the “chemical trail” nuts quiet. :0)
You just want to see it fly over the Verezanno and land on south beach.
Good thing you have a lot of dirty vents.
ROFL!!
LOL!! you got me good!
Saw your home page. Could never move south.
I get hot when it hits 65 :)
It’s supposed to have an airspeed of 28 mph. What happens if it hits a 35 mph headwind?
So at night it is in a constant decent?
I don't know, but probably they go back and forth like a sailboat going into the wind and make only a little headway with each tack(sp?).
It climbs all day and slowly descends all night.
Repeat the next day.
Probably and African Sparrow could fly faster.
I’d think a blimp or some sort of lighter-than-air craft would make a better testbed for first solar trans-oceanic flight. That would take some of the clinch out of nights on battery power alone.
I thought we already did this a long time ago.
I think they wanted to do it with a plane providing the lift. A gas bag would be larger and might get into the size and power required to move it problem. Someone already went around the world nonstop in a balloon.
First nonstop across the Pacific was in 1931. Japan to Wenatchee WA.
Took 41 hours. Single engine Bellanca. Two pilots. Plane was rated for 600 gal of gas and carried 900. Landing gear was dropped on takeoff so chief pilot landed it on the belly.
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