Solar Airplanes - A Passing Fad?

[genuinegirly]

Here is an interesting bit of technology: solar-powered planes are reaching new heights.

Are they just a passing fad, or perhaps the wave of the future?
Would you want your own solar-powered plane?
Is this just a little niche market, or do you think Cessna and others will begin incorporating solar technology into their mainstream smaller planes?
Do you think solar technology has the potential to capture enough energy to eventually power a 747?

Here's a photo of Solar Impulse from Aviation News:

Link to the NY Times article about the recent flight: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/wo...ef=global-home

PARIS — Slender as a stick insect, a solar-powered experimental airplane with a huge wing span completed its first test flight of more than 24 hours on Thursday, powered overnight by energy collected from the sun during a day aloft over Switzerland.

The organizers said the flight was the longest and highest by a solar-powered craft, reaching an altitude of just over 28,000 feet above sea level, at an average speed of 23 knots, around 25 miles per hour.

The plane — Solar Impulse — landed where it had taken off 26 hours and 9 minutes earlier at Payerne, 30 miles southwest of the capital, Bern, after gliding and looping over the Jura Mountains, its 12,000 solar cells absorbing energy to keep its batteries charged when the sun went down.

The pilot, André Borschberg, 57, a former Swiss air force fighter pilot, flew the plane from a cramped, single-seat cockpit, buffeted by low-level turbulence after takeoff and chilled by low temperatures overnight.

“I’ve been a pilot for 40 years now, but this flight has been the most incredible one of my flying career,” Mr. Borschberg said as he landed, according to a statement from the organizers of the project. “Just sitting there and watching the battery charge level rise and rise thanks to the sun. I have just flown more than 26 hours without using a drop of fuel and without causing any pollution.”

The project’s co-founder, Bertrand Piccard, who himself achieved fame by completing the first nonstop, round-the-world flight by hot air balloon in 1999, embraced the pilot after he landed the plane to the cheers of hundreds of supporters.

“When you took off it was another era,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Piccard as saying. “You land in a new era where people understand that with renewable energy you can do impossible things.”

The project’s designers had set out to prove that, theoretically at least, the plane with its airliner-size, 210-foot wing span could stay aloft indefinitely, recharging batteries during the day and using the stored power overnight. “We are on the verge of the perpetual flight,” Mr. Piccard said.

The project’s founders say their ambition is for one of their craft to fly around the world using solar power. The propeller-driven Solar Impulse, made of carbon fiber, is powered by four small electric motors and weighs around 3,500 pounds. During its 26-hour flight, the plane reached a maximum speed of 68 knots, or 78 miles per hour, the organizers said.

The seven-year-old project is not designed to replace jet transportation — or its comforts.

Just 17 hours after takeoff, a blog on the project’s Web site reported, “André says he’s feeling great up there.”

It continued: “His only complaints involve little things like a slightly sore back as well as a 10-hour period during which it was minus 20 degrees Celsius in the cockpit.

“That made his drinking water system freeze up and worse of all his iPod batteries die.”

But that's not the only plane that runs on solar power. There have been a bunch of models through the years.
Here are a few:


NASA's Helios (unmanned, crashed during test flight)


The Ultralight Sun Seeker II designed by Eric Raymond

I'm sure there are others out there - feel free to share any that you find!

Will solar planes take off? You tell me!

[Xerxys]

In the years of 2000-2003 I would have very much agreed with you on this. But right now I have completely lost faith in anything that does not run on fossil fuels. Even radiation is not a very effective energy source. If we can find something else that can be contained, distributed and dispersed as well as petroleum, then maybe that will work.

As for Solar airplanes, like boats, jet ski's and other sports utilities, not many people will be able to own one.

[BadNick]

Somebody here, maybe even me, should calculate how many watts it takes to power an airplane large enough to carry at least a few people at speeds over a couple hundred miles per hour...I bet that number is bad news for current solar cell technology. Otherwise, it's just an expensive, interesting hobby.

[Martian]

For commercial applications, solar powered aircraft are wholly inappropriate. The airlines are already running thin enough profit margins as it is without having to shut down their fleet after dark.

That's assuming, of course, that it's even possible to build one that's practical for commercial applications to begin with. I'm doubtful.

Commercial aircraft have voracious appetites, energy-wise. I have faith that humanity will move away from fossil fuels eventually (economic pressure is a powerful motivator), but I also think that aircraft will likely be the last thing to transition. Using current or near-future technology, there just aren't any viable alternatives. Nothing has the combination of energy density and relative safety of fossil fuels that commercial flight requires.

Given all of this, I don't think solar planes even really fit as a passing fad. They could have their niches, I suppose, but as a mainstream alternative they just don't look viable, in my not humble opinion.

[telekinetic]

You guys are looking at this all wrong. Solar planes don't replace cessnas or jumbo jets. They replace communication satellites and cell towers, research the weather, map the country, track herd migration...anything that requires altitude, duration, and persistence, but not speed or payload. They are completely impractical and unnecessary as passenger craft, as having passengers who embark and disembark allows you to just fill up on fuel (be that fuel a battery charge or gas or whatever), but for persistence and endurance, their sustainability is unmatched except by satellites and maybe blimps.

[BadNick]

telekinetic makes a great point or two. The never-ending self-powered hovercraft fits the bill very well.

[kajagoogoo]

Originally Posted by telekinetic

You guys are looking at this all wrong. Solar planes don't replace cessnas or jumbo jets. They replace communication satellites and cell towers, research the weather, map the country, track herd migration...anything that requires altitude, duration, and persistence, but not speed or payload. They are completely impractical and unnecessary as passenger craft, as having passengers who embark and disembark allows you to just fill up on fuel (be that fuel a battery charge or gas or whatever), but for persistence and endurance, their sustainability is unmatched except by satellites and maybe blimps.

came here to say this, but looks like telekinetic has already done the job well

Voted other.

[ASU2003]

The panels will need to become more efficient, and the costs will be a big part of getting these to be more common. I like the concept of electric airplanes, just like I like electric cars. I would like to have one that could go from sunrise to sunset without landing and covering about 1200 miles (120 mph for 10 hours).

[BadNick]

Along the lines of what was said above, I read the news today oh, boy



July 23, 2010 -- Today, an unmanned aircraft is breaking a record. The Zephyr solar-powered plane will land after being aloft for two weeks straight. It was launched on July 9, and flew 14 nights above the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. An official from the world air federation, Federation Aeronautique Internationale, confirmed that the plane flew longer, non-stop and without refueling, than any other airplane.

The ultra-lightweight plane is built from carbon fiber and weighs about 110 pounds; it has a wingspan of about 74 feet. It’s power comes from solar panels that are no thicker than a sheet of paper. The panels collect energy from the sun to run the plane during the day. The solar energy is also used to recharge lithium-sulphur batteries, which are used to power the aircraft by night.

Zephyr was built by the British defense company QinetiQ as a surveillance and communications craft. But it also could be used to for environmental research, to monitor crops and pollution, to examine disaster zones and provide mobile communications capabilities in remote areas.