http://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/14/solar-impulse-the-solar-airplane-reroutes-to-washington-d-c/ Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More. Sun, 28 Dec 2014 20:40:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1 http://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/14/solar-impulse-the-solar-airplane-reroutes-to-washington-d-c/#comment-166485 Sat, 15 Jun 2013 23:22:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=52802#comment-166485 Solar Impulse visiting the NASM near Dulles seems ironically appropriate, since NASM owns Solar Challenger, the MacCready-designed solar-powered airplane that preceded Solar Impulse by over thirty years. Solar Challenger (see Wikipedia) was arguably a more capable airplane than Solar Impulse: Solar Challenger was stronger, far lighter, much less expensive, extremely maneuverable, and had absolutely no storage batteries. It flew 163 miles from France to England in 1981, piloted by Stephen Ptacek. It was capable of being flown far further, higher, and longer duration, but was retired after it had shown that solar-powered flight was achievable. Solar Impulse is interesting as a project intended to do an around-the-world flight, but it is not a technical advance over what was done years ago (for example, Eric Raymond’s trans-USA solar-powered flight in 1990.) Some reporter ought to ask the Solar Impulse team about these things, especially when they begin evoking Lindberg and the Wright Brothers like they have on previous occasions. Quite respectfully, their project is an organizational masterpiece, though their entry into the solar airplane field is a very late one. See Wikipedia under “solar-powered airplane” for the historical details.

]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/14/solar-impulse-the-solar-airplane-reroutes-to-washington-d-c/#comment-166401 Sat, 15 Jun 2013 07:39:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=52802#comment-166401 Always reminds me of the Wright brothers, too. As well as the pushback about it “being unrealistic” that we always get.

]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/14/solar-impulse-the-solar-airplane-reroutes-to-washington-d-c/#comment-166387 Sat, 15 Jun 2013 04:42:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=52802#comment-166387 Maybe if we mix solar energy with biofuels we can make a good clean alternative to gasoline fueled planes. Looking at this plane reminds me of the Wright brothers plane at the beginning of the air traveling industry. So this solar plane is the first step into something new in aviation future.

]]> http://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/14/solar-impulse-the-solar-airplane-reroutes-to-washington-d-c/#comment-166335 Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:41:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=52802#comment-166335 It must be all that hot air

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