Solar Powered Airplane

 

Techies, take note!

A new world record for solar powered flight is about to be set. 5+ days from Nagoya, Japan to Barbers Point, Hawaii. Only one person on board - the pilot. All on solar cells and batteries.

Should be landing at Kalaeloa airport at about 12 noon EDT. Best to tune in early.

Anyone interested can watch live at:

http://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-8-from-Nagoya-to-Hawaii

Just goes to show how technology is shrinking things to make this possible, including GPS devices, etc.

If I still lived there, I would be there. This is the longest leg of the around the world flight.

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Metricman DriveSmart 76 Williamsburg, VA

Wow! 5 days solo in the cockpit.

God bless those explorers willing to take that risk. I'll never have the "right stuff". Just "a lot of stuff..."

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Striving to make the NYC Metro area project the best.

...

Awesome accomplishment! Just to keep the battery charging through the night, hoping to get enough cloud free sunshine the next day is super impressive. Attempting this while crossing an open ocean for five days is incredible.

Good Luck

Hope the pilot makes it OK.

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Shooter N32 39 W97 25 VIA 1535TM, Lexus built-in, TomTom Go

Next Flight

The date for the next leg from Oahu, HI to Phoenix, AZ is still not posted.

At least the flight from Japan to Hawaii made a small splash in the national news. The "Press" kind of ignored the previous legs.

Those interested, can sign up for notification emails at the site.

http://www.solarimpulse.com/

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Metricman DriveSmart 76 Williamsburg, VA

Delayed until August

Just got an email:

"NO SI2 FLIGHT BEFORE AUGUST
Following the record-breaking oceanic flight of 5 days and 5 nights (117 hours and 52 minutes) in a solar-powered airplane, Solar Impulse will undergo maintenance repairs on the batteries due to damages brought about by overheating.

Despite having completed the longest and most difficult leg of the Round the World Solar Flight, #Si2 has suffered battery damages due to overheating.

During the first ascent on day one of the flight from Nagoya to Hawaii, the battery temperature increased too much due to over insulation. And while the Mission Team was monitoring this very closely during the mission leg, there was no way to decrease the temperature for the remaining duration of the flight as each daily cycle requires an ascend to 28’000 feet and descend for energy management issues.

The damage to certain parts of the batteries is irreversible and will require repairs and replacements that will take several weeks to work through. In parallel, the Solar Impulse engineering team is looking at various options for better management of the cooling and heating process for very long flights. Solar Impulse does not see the possibility for any flights before 2-3 weeks at the earliest.
Solar Impulse initiated the #futureisclean campaign, calling on supporters to add their voice to the message on www.futureisclean.org: a website serving as a petition to convince governments around the globe to implement the necessary clean technology solutions and help ensure that the United Nations’ upcoming Conference on Climate Change (COP21) is successful in renewing the Kyoto protocol this December in Paris."

Nice to know that they have the same problems with GPS battery life decreasing when overheating occurs. I would think that they mean "replace", instead of "repair". But I'm not that familiar with the batteries they are using.

If you caught the news about the HI landing, did you catch the "No place to land between Japan and Hawaii" comments. One only has to use Google Earth to see that there were plenty of small islands that could have been used in an emergency, but no support crew. 2 people have to be on the runway to support the wings (No outboard landing gear), as well as 2 people to help it take-off. Watch the landing videos and you can see the guys on bicycles pacing it till it stops.

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Metricman DriveSmart 76 Williamsburg, VA

Interesting

I can see how they have conflicting requirements for the battery installation. At altitude they would want to insulate the batteries to keep them from getting too cold, due to the loss of capacity that would result. However, they would want little insulation while charging because it might cause overheating - as apparently happened.

- Tom -

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XXL540, GO LIVE 1535, GO 620

Winchester Va.

Westminster Md.To Winchester Va. To attend family funeral.