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Transportation Earth

Solar Plane To Make Public Debut 76

Posted by kdawson from the blackbird-flying-in-the-dead-of-night dept.
vigmeister writes "Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard has unveiled a prototype of the solar-powered plane he hopes eventually to fly around the world. The initial version, spanning 61m but weighing just 1,500kg, will undergo trials to prove it can fly at night. Dr. Piccard, who made history by circling the globe non-stop in a balloon in 1999, says he wants to demonstrate the potential of renewable energies. He expects to make a crossing of the Atlantic in 2012. The HB-SIA has the look of a glider but is on the scale of a modern airliner. The airplane incorporates composite materials to keep it extremely light and uses super-efficient solar cells, batteries, motors, and propellers to get it through the dark hours. The public unveiling on Friday of the HB-SIA took place at Dubendorf airfield near Zürich."
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Solar Plane To Make Public Debut More

Solar Plane To Make Public Debut

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  • Making it so... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tau Neutrino ( 76206 ) on Friday June 26, 2009 @10:18AM (#28483139)
    Oh wait, wrong Picard.

  • Helios (Score:5, Informative)

    by Blixinator ( 1585261 ) on Friday June 26, 2009 @10:19AM (#28483153)
    Reminds me of the Helios project back in 2001. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010831.html [nasa.gov]

    • Re:Helios (Score:4, Interesting)

      by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Friday June 26, 2009 @10:36AM (#28483471) Journal

      Great reference, thank you!

      The Helios is an amazing technological feat: it reached an altitude of about 30 Km, which is the highest a non-rocket aircraft has ever achieved. And due to its propellent being unexhaustable, it could, conceivably, stay in the air forever, provided that it climbs high enough during sun-time.

      The Helios is stuff I'd like to see more development in.

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The Helios is an amazing technological feat: it reached an altitude of about 30 Km, which is the highest a non-rocket aircraft has ever achieved.

        Technically inaccurate. The highest altitude a non-rocket engined aircraft has achieved is 37,650 meters, set in a MiG-25 on a "zoom flight" (Think pointing up, full throttle until the engine dies, and seeing how far up you can go). It holds the record for highest SUSTAINED altitude, beating the SR-71's old record by 5 km.

  • Don't take the red-eye! (Score:3, Funny)

    by motherpusbucket ( 1487695 ) on Friday June 26, 2009 @10:19AM (#28483167)
    I'm just sayin'
    The battery thing for dark hours makes me nervous.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jackharrer ( 972403 )

      Modern passenger aircraft can glide with engines on for about 30-60min before crashing. That thing, made for gliding can glide from 10.000 m whole night, I suppose... I wouldn't be so nervous about it.

      • Without knowing more about the aircraft (like the exact glide ratio and best glide speed) a few back of the envelope calculations suggest that the glide time from 30,000 ft to sea level would probably take about 3.5 hours. While impressive, it's not going to make it the entire night without some help.

  • Autopilot? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wjousts ( 1529427 ) on Friday June 26, 2009 @10:23AM (#28483235)

    From the article:

    "The aeroplane could do it theoretically non-stop - but not the pilot," said Dr Piccard.

    ""In a balloon you can sleep, because it stays in the air even if you sleep. We believe the maximum for one pilot is five days."

    Seems autopilot should be the least complicated part of this endeavor, especially considering that there have already been several unmanned solar powered aircraft demonstrated already. Turn on the autopilot and catch some Z's.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by qoncept ( 599709 )
      I'd think that with unproven technology you'd want to make sure your guy was awake the entire time. Sure, you could make alarms, but there are any number of unforeseen things that could come up and cause an accident while the pilot was asleep.

      • With such a light weight, huge wing area and flying at low altitude this plane will get tossed about like a leaf in a hurricane in the slightest turbulence. I don't think autopilots can cope with that.

    • Unmanned means there is nobody on the actual aircraft itself, but that doesn't mean there is no one near the radio controls connected to it, or the monitoring tools back at home. Those people, probably a team of people I am guessing, would, again I am guessing, take shifts to make sure the craft was doing well on its first flight.

    • Agreed. Single-manned cross-ocean trips by sailboat have been done many times, even before GPS navigation, should be much easier by air.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by tignet ( 1303483 )
        I don't know that single-manned air travel should really be thought of as much easier than sailboat.

        A boat in the water will stay afloat unless something causes it to sink. A plane in the air will fall unless something causes it to fly.

        I would sleep much better as the sole operator in a boat rather than the sole operator in a plane. In a boat the worst that's likely to happen is you've gone off-course. And even without GPS an experienced navigator will get back on track. In a plane the worst that's like

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 4D6963 ( 933028 )
      Why even put a guy in it? Just make the whole thing remotely controlled/monitored by something like radio or a satellite connection.
  • I wonder if they could ever make an ultralight version so that you would be allowed to fly one without a pilot's license. At least in the USA you can fly small, personal ultralight aircraft with no pilot's license if the craft meets certain criteria. I would imagine they would need to get it working/economical first and then worry about making it more compact but I sure would like to see something like that.
    • It would be a long stretch, and we'd need new technology, but it's not strictly impossible. I would wager, if price isn't an issue, that could very well become a possible reality in the future.
    • I'm pretty sure the surface area required for the solar panels ensures the size will exceed ultralight specs. Perhaps if/when we get more efficient, smaller solar panels though...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by fatmal ( 920123 )
      Its already been built smaller - actually that was done first as a proof of concept. Have a look at http://solar-flight.com/sunseekerII/index.html [solar-flight.com] - built by Eric Raymond. From the magazine article that I have (Pacific Flyer - June 2009), with an empty weight of 120Kg and a gross weight of 230Kg, this should fit nicely into the US Ultralight regulations, but probably not the Part 103(?) that doesn't require licenses.

  • Captain PLAAANEEET!

    'Cause the Planeteers had one, or something.

  • Faster plane (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jonsmirl ( 114798 )

    The plane is too slow. If they had a faster design it could fly around the world in continuous daylight.

    • They're trying to prove that it can fly at night using the energy it stored during the day. Would kinda defeat the whole purpose, wouldn't it?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by CanadianRealist ( 1258974 )

      There's really not much chance of achieving that - it would have to be much much faster.

      The circumference of the earth is about 40 000 km. If you could start first thing in the morning, and arrive by nightfall the next day, that would allow a maximum of about 36 hours. I really don't see a solar powered plan managing 1111 km/hr.

      • Start a little further north and start in dark with charged batteries. They never follow the equator exactly on these around the world records.

      • The only solution is climbing high enough during sun-hours, and sailing during night-time. Until we invent new power storage technology, such as super-flywheels or such.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Big_Breaker ( 190457 )

      The earth is 24.8k miles in circumference, so you need to fly about 1,030 miles per hour to stay under the sun at all times.

      Good luck getting a solar-powered electric prop plane to fly just under mach two.

  • I read this as "Soul Plane [imdb.com] to make Public Debut."

  • It's no good unless I can drive it like a car!

    SOMEONE give me the flying car I was promised!

  • Even if it was going to be such a problem to fly at night, does it mean we cant take these and make use of them during the day only, and keep the older gas powered planes for night time...I mean do they have to replace all the planes over night...no pun intended!

  • Jean-Luc and Beverly's son?

  • "We only fly during the day."

  • "into the clouds, rely on instruments."

    uh, inspector, we have a problem here.... everything seems to have gone dead.

  • Why? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by This name in use ( 1248516 ) on Friday June 26, 2009 @01:02PM (#28485843)
    Just asking, but isn't this just an ego-boosting stunt for another billionaire?

    My God, an airliner-sized plane that costs millions of dollars and carries a single passenger at nearly the speed of a moped!
    Now we all just need millions of dollars, a large runway for every home, parking for them wherever we want to go, and we'll finally break out of those nasty fossile fuel addictions.

    I'm not trying to be a hater, but it seems like they are pouring way too much into this to get too little to be that impressive.
    Please don't ruin my life, Monsieur Piccard.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by lysdexia ( 897 )
      That's what they said about Barbicane [wikipedia.org]. Sort of puts it all in perspective, doesn't it? I mean, would we have even had the moon bases we have now if it weren't for that "Ego-Boosting Stunt"?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by WARM3CH ( 662028 )
      Oh yeah, why bother with science and adventure? In case you didn't know, this insanity runs in the Piccard family for generations.
      This guy is Bertrand Piccard [wikipedia.org], is the first man to go round the globe non-stop on a balloon. His father was Jacques Piccard [wikipedia.org], the first man that used a build and used a capsule to go down the Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the world's oceans. His grandfather was Auguste Piccard [wikipedia.org], the first man to build and used a balloon to go to the stratosphere, setting a record of 23,000

    • Well, you have to start somewhere, don't you?

      No idea is born perfect.

  • Voyager made it around the world, non-stop, with two pilots and an autopilot. If they could do it in that aircraft in the mid '80s there should be no problem doing it now for this solar aircraft!

  • Just follow the sun. "Heliostationary" relative to earth, if you will. :)

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