Solar plane dream pursued

[seriousstan]

A Swiss adventurer hopes to carve out a place in history by harnessing solar energy to fly a state-of-the-art plane around the world.


So far the plane to be used by 47-year-old psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard exists only in the computers of the researchers at the Lausanne polytechnic, where a team of about 50 scientists are working on the 40-million-euro project, funded by four sponsors who so far remain in the shadows.


---cut---

The plane, also called Solar Impulse, will be completely autonomous even during take-off and will be able to fly above the clouds reaching heights of over 10,000m.

Made out of light but incredibly strong carbon-fibre, it will weigh only 1500kg, some 400 times less than an airliner. But it will have a giant wing-span stretching some 80m - much longer than an Airbus.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0D857C3D-85EE-4B11-80BA-44FA2DCEF10B.htm

[NEOBuckeye]

1. 'Bout damn time. It's getting pretty late, though.

Peak Oil Production is about to start banging on the door.

Loudly.

http://www.energybulletin.net/primer.php

[Orsino]

2. How much bigger would it have to be...

...to carry even one person? How much larger than that would it have to be for airlines to consider making even the smallest dent in their passenger or cargo schedule?

Employing solar energy is a good thing, but useful payloads require engines that can store and release that energy quickly enough.