Solar-Powered Ultralight To Try 24-Hour Flight 104
blair1q writes "When the solar aircraft Solar Impulse lifts off from an airfield in Switzerland on a sunny day at the end of June, it will begin the first ever manned night flight on a plane propelled exclusively by power it collects from the sun. Former Swiss Air Force pilot Andre Borschberg and round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard developed the aircraft, and Borschberg will be the pilot for this mission. 'The flight will require a lot of attention and concentration — the plane doesn't have an auto-pilot, it has to be flown for 24 hours straight.' For him, the most exciting part of the venture is 'being on the plane during the day and seeing the amount of energy increasing instead of decreasing as on a normal aircraft.'"
Official website (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How about using thermals? (Score:5, Informative)
Thermal != geothermal.
Nobody said anything about digging holes, or setting up fires. There exist natural regions [wikipedia.org] of hot and cold air in the atmosphere that gliders take advantage of.
Re:How about using thermals? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Manned missions are just ego-wanking... (Score:2, Informative)
24 hours != indefinite. I didn't RTFA but I would bet my left testicle that it will start the flight with full batteries and end with nearly depleted ones. The REAL test will be when energy levels and consumables like lubricant are about the same before and after 24 hours in flight.
FTFA: "Solar Impulse will lift off from an airfield in Switzerland, on a sunny day sometime at the end of June. It will then fly around, charging the solar cells on the plane's wings, in a bid to store enough energy for the electric motors to last until dawn... If it proves a success, the Solar Impulse team will attempt to go even further. The ultimate aim is to push the frontier of renewable solar energy. In two years' time, the plane will set off on its first manned transatlantic solar flight, followed in 2013 by an even more daring circumnavigation of the Earth."
Maybe you should bet less and read more.
Re:How about using thermals? (Score:5, Informative)
What everyone seems to ignore is that ridge lift has little to do with thermals.
Thermals are streams of warmer air rising up through colder air and caused by temperature differences, just as the parent mentions.
Ridge lift on the other hand is caused by wind encountering a slope and having to move up to get over it, thus creating an upwards vector that can be used by gliders to soar.
The wind that creates ridge lift is of course ultimately caused by air moving in to balance pressure differences, which are formed by air being displaced by temperature differences, but that doesn't mean that ridge lift is the same thing as a thermal.
Re:The danger of solar power (Score:1, Informative)
Yes, you indeed are. What you're missing is that we're already using that energy. Rather than taking energy that's been stored chemically and re-releasing it into the atmosphere along with the emissions, we're somewhat reducing the Albedo. So while it does somewhat increase warming on that front, the overall picture is either no change or a small decline in warming from energy use.
You're assuming cheap solar power would replace other energy sources. If history is any indication, adding another source of cheap power just means worldwide power consumption would go up.
Of course, if you're living on the edge of starvation somewhere, cheaper power means cheaper food....
Re:Oh god no (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The danger of solar power (Score:5, Informative)
For every action, there is an equal opposite reaction, said Albert Einstien.
Newton's sitting in the corner glaring at you.