A Solar Powered Plane

[wdfifteen]

Yeah, he wouldn't waste his time on anything useless. That's why he worked so hard to make direct current power transmission the success it is today.

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

Well there you have it. Maybe you can come up with an "AC" battery the size of a double A DC battery that will drive a 200 hp AC motor for 12 hours that weighs 10 pounds.

Doesn't sound like you know the difference between power transmission and a storage battery. Look it up.

[island911]

Well, some of you ought to really like this stuff then

I saw these guys in a blimp hanger in Tillamook some decade ago.

[island911]

. . .and maybe, with more "outside the box" thinkers like this (and a few hundred million dollars) we can have rubber band technology for everyone!

Rubber bands - the FUTURE energy.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Threads like this always seem to get ruined by smug confrontationalism.

[island911]

OMG . ..

the future is NOW... "AMAZING"



That will out smug any ol' Prius!

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

Threads like this always seem to get ruined by smug confrontationalism.

Seems like there is "smug" on both sides of the political fence.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by island911

Over a $100 Million to do what a blimp will do.

Actually, (obviously) a blimp can lift a lot more.

No wonder we're broke, eh?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Seems like there is "smug" on both sides of the political fence.

not really. it's always the same folks that push their smug ignorance down our throats on interesting threads. I don't understand why they feel the need to inject their own political agenda/paranoia while shouting an underlying "this is crap, I know better than anyone else" message so everyone can see how smart they are. What's really sad is they sound off with their smug ire without even watching the God-damned video.

[m21sniper]

Oh, that's rich.

[Joe Bob]

Science Fiction can become science fact. Read the early Sci Fi writers.....see how much speculation is actually fact now. Spare me the Al Gore crap....

It will prolly take a private company to make it economically feasible....

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Science Fiction can become science fact. Read the early Sci Fi writers.....see how much speculation is actually fact now. Spare me the Al Gore crap....

It will prolly take a private company to make it economically feasible....

Huh..... well Joe Bob says PV solar can be made way cheaper and can magically glean way more power from the sun. I guess that settles it. Beam me up Scotty. (oh wait, that "science fiction" is still fiction... d@mn those laws of physics)

[Joe Bob]

Ever heard of a solar panel wearing out?

Anyways, the sun is a constant, at least in human terms......once the infrastructure is in, the rest is just maintenance. More viable than wind power.....geo thermal is also under utilized.

The US has a vast middle wasteland of sun drenched desert......use it.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Ever heard of a solar panel wearing out?

Anyways, the sun is a constant, at least in human terms......once the infrastructure is in, the rest is just maintenance. More viable than wind power.....geo thermal is also under utilized.

The US has a vast middle wasteland of sun drenched desert......use it.

Actually some solar panels can wear out due to degradation from UV. They cost way too much to make due to the process which consists of sputtering of precious metals in a vacuum environment..... very expensive process for large objects whether making hundreds or thousands. PV panels have been being built for years, yet other than powering small portable equipment/hunting cabins, I do not know of anyone who can claim that they are better off financially by using them (without govt subsidies or govt taxation of cheaper energy resources anyhow).

Wind is probably never going to be a major source, but I would agree that geothermal is a great thing.

Nuclear+Geothermal+much better battery technology all would be benificial to our near future energy needs. PV solar, ethanol and wind are just a waste of valuable time and money.

[island911]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Ever heard of a solar panel wearing out? ....

All of the time. .. .

In fact, engineers plan for for the constant degradation of PV panels - kind of like a cell phone battery gets worse and worse at holding a charge, solar panels lose efficiencies ... break-down. Panels also get dirty, requiring a relatively large amount of work to clean (large wrt the PV energy out put).

But I'm SURE that In the Future, everything will be hyper-clean and Utopian.

[island911]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

No wonder we're broke, eh?

or at least why Europe is more broke than the rest of us.

[RPKESQ]

I enjoy laughing my ass off at the "experts" who proclaim their verdicts without knowing or making much of an effort to learn the background of this and similar efforts.

PV powered flight is another aviation milestone.

PV powered manned flight is another aviation milestone.

A successful PV powered manned around the world non stop would be another aviation milestone.

So say every major aviation group. The US Air Force, the Air & Space Museum, the EAA, the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, AOPA, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale,and others.

But you people know better.

Rutan's round-the-world-non-stop-non-refueled tested and refined several aviation technologies. Liquid cooled horizontally opposed engines, noise canceling headsets, low cost data acquisition and telemetry, just to name a few. It wasn't ever conceived nor designed to be a personal achievement only. The design and technology stretches required for success were at least as severe as Lindberg's or Yeager's flight, which were also aviation milestones.

Low cost extremely high endurance PV powered machines could be used for all kinds of surveillance and not just for the military, for example: for crops monitoring, tracking waves patterns, tracking plant disease, traffic management, tracking of tagged animals, oil spill tracking, animal migration, poacher mitigation, counter smuggling, the list is vast.

But because you big thinkers cannot get past the the current fact that it will not replace the existing power source, you mentally become mired in a bizarre mix of political/stagnant technology ranting. Yea, you come across as lost village idiots.

All early innovative attempts and research faced the same kind of small minded, limited scope objections and proclamations. In fact, history favors the bold thinkers and not the ignorant whiners.

[island911]

Dick P Q Esq you just wait until rubber band technology takes off. THEN all kinds of tasks, once done by satellites, will be done with a sky littered with rubber-band powered craft, and not PV.

The rubber-band /aviation milestone will be huge.

You are just too damn short-sighted to see the potential.

heh heh heh . . such a doofus. ...

...and yeah, noise canceling headsets could not be/ were not done, until Rutan.

[Tim Hancock]

Apparently frenchy agrees with what I posted on the first page (post #8) where I stated this-

"The solar powered planes have to be built so light that they will never be able to hold any meaningful payload other than maybe some scientific data collecting sensors."

[RPKESQ]

Originally Posted by island911

Dick P Q Esq you just wait until rubber band technology takes off. THEN all kinds of tasks, once done by satellites, will be done with a sky littered with rubber-band powered craft, and not PV.

The rubber-band /aviation milestone will be huge.

You are just too damn short-sighted to see the potential.

heh heh heh . . such a doofus. ...

...and yeah, noise canceling headsets could not be/ were not done, until Rutan.

Gilligan,

Your conclusions are not supported either by the statements I made or any research you have made into this project.

WOW, now that was a surprise!

Please show me where I claimed noise-canceling headset could not be or were not done until Rutan.

Run back to your village, they must miss the antics of their lost idiot.

[RPKESQ]

Originally Posted by Tim Hancock

Apparently frenchy agrees with what I posted on the first page (post #8) where I stated this-

"The solar powered planes have to be built so light that they will never be able to hold any meaningful payload other than maybe some scientific data collecting sensors."

Apparently, you can not utilize logic in a discussion where your positions have not been supported by any evidence you have managed to provide (that means you have been pwn'd badly).

Please lay out the premise and concurrence to that premise that you were able to acquire from my post.

Just because they can lift a human weight object and my examples were of the surveillance type, does not indicate or provide support your conclusion.

Your mental limitations are showing again.