As Tom Nelson puts it “hooray?”
(Reuters) A solar-powered airplane that developers hope eventually to pilot around the world landed safely in Phoenix on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the United States using only the sun’s energy, project organizers said.
The plane, dubbed the Solar Impulse, took 18 hours and 18 minutes to reach Phoenix on the slow-speed flight, completing the first of five legs with planned stops in Dallas, St. Louis and Washington on the way to a final stop in New York.
According to Google Maps, it can take as little as 10 hours and 57 minutes to drive from Phoenix to San Fran. A plane doesn’t have to deal with pesky traffic, stop lights, and the other issue involving ground travel. Let’s see some of the other low-lights for this single seat wonder
The lightweight design and wingspan allow the plane to conserve energy, but make it vulnerable. It cannot fly in strong wind, fog, rain or clouds.
The plane can climb to 28,000 feet and flies at an average of 43 miles per hour (69 km per hour).
The project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros ($112 million) and has involved engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.
They expect the upcoming trip cross country to take 2 months. It took 47 days for a ship to sail from SF to NY, going around Cape Horn. The cross country cycling record is 8 days, 9 hours, 47 minutes.
Now, will Al Gore, Michael Mann, and all the other Warmists give up their fossil fueled flights for this wonder of the future?
I talked to a buddy about this the other day and I’d not thought of it, BUT this solar plane CAN ONLY fly WITH upper winds. So in the US, that means eastward only.
No way this plane could fly back to California once it headed east. Heh. Perfect.
Well, yeah, but remember, “climate change” is going to make all sorts of “extreme weather”, and will probably cause winds aloft to reverse :)