Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Solar Impulse 2, an attempt to raise awareness of the environmental issues, by flying around the world the world using solar energy, has been forced to abort an attempt to fly from Japan to Hawaii due to bad weather.
According to the National Geographic;
The Solar Impulse 2, a plane attempting to fly around the world using solar power, was forced to land Monday in Nagoya, Japan due to inclement weather.
The experimental aircraft — flown and financed by Swiss businessman and pilot André Borschberg — is now two months into its quest to become the first solar-powered plane to circumnavigate the Earth.
Read more: http://time.com/3903110/solar-impulse-plane/
The Solar Impulse information page spells out its green mission:
Since the ecological movement appeared on the scene in the 1970s, an irreconcilable conflict has divided those who want to protect nature, and who call for reductions in mobility, comfort and growth, from those in business and industry who defend people’s employment and purchasing power. Today, for the first time, this cleavage can be bridged, and the answer is clean technology. At last, technologies exist which can simultaneously protect the environment in a cost-effective manner and bring profits to companies.
The problem with our society is that, despite all the grand talk about sustainable development, we are a long way from making use of the clean technologies that are already available to us. Every hour, our world consumes around a million tons of petrol, not to mention other fossil fuels, spits back out into the atmosphere enough polluting emissions to disrupt the climate, and leaves half of the population stagnating in totally unacceptable living conditions. And yet, everything could already be so different…
Read more: http://info.solarimpulse.com/en/our-story/ambassador-of-the-future/
What can I say – I admire Borschberg’s courage at attempting such a difficult feat. But his failed attempt to fly to Hawaii was surely a perfect metaphor for what is wrong with renewables. Borschberg’s plane can’t carry cargo or passengers, it can barely carry its own weight. It would have been impossible to construct without high tech petroleum based plastics. And when the weather turned against him, Borschberg’s ingenuity and courage was helpless to overcome the inherent shortcomings of renewable energy.
I reject their premise. It is typical class warfare agitprop: evil business and industry pursuing equally evil profit vs “pure as the driven they won’t remember what snow is” environmentalists.
There is no “irreconcilable conflict”, just a reasonable and ongoing effort to clean up as we move forward. What conflict there is comes from the left, who want to divide society and pit the subdivided factions against each other.
America proves my point: the largest industrialised nation in the world is also the most conservation minded and cleanest.
“It is typical class warfare agitprop: evil business and industry pursuing equally evil profit vs “pure as the driven they won’t remember what snow is” environmentalists.”
It’s refreshing to know that ‘evil business’ is in no way associated with the mining and processing of the raw materials that go into ‘green’ industries; that ‘evil business’ does not profit from the manufacture and installation of ‘green’ gadgetry such as turbines and solar panels, and that ‘evil industry’ gets by without government subsidies, grants and whatnot. The current expose on Elon Musk and his $4.9 billion in government grants is a case in point – he says he can do without it, so I’ll believe him when he cuts a $4.9 billion check made out to Uncle Sam. Oh yeah, ‘the check is in the mail’?
Hey I made a funny without realising it: “It is typical class warfare agitprop…”
Solar Impulse 2 is an agitprop plane 🙂
Note that they plan to fly in the same direction as the upper atmosphere prevailing winds. Wonder if they have enough battery power to allow them to climb to 40,000 feet or higher, and, therefore, be above most of the clouds. Wonder if that thing will even get to 40,000 feet.
No oxygen system for the pilot. Can’t get over 8-10,000 feet safely. Which puts it right in the middle of the clouds and turbulence from even the smallest storms and fronts. Just like they did between 1908 (first passenger) and Boeing’s B47 “smooth” ride at 550+ knots at 35,000 – 45,000 feet in 1950.
So, in 48 years from 1908 to 1956, they went from 2 people at 50 knots, no cargo and no cockpit and a pasture to 45,000 to 120,000 feet altitudes and world-wide plane flights lasting days with take-off weights of almost 800,000 lbs (B-36, B-52, Spruce Goose) … Now, with 66 more years of “progress” in aviation, we are back to 50 knot speeds with one pilot and no cargo at all. And we are still requiring trees to be cut down to take off.
Only 10,000? I’ve been to 15,000 and I was carrying a backpack at the time.
No. 10,000 – 12,000 feet is the established altitude to FLY THE AIRPLANE safely and continuously without supplemental oxygen or a pressurized cabin.
Federal Law: § 135.89 Pilot requirements: Use of oxygen.
(a) Unpressurized aircraft. Each pilot of an unpressurized aircraft shall use oxygen continuously when flying—
(1) At altitudes above 10,000 feet through 12,000 feet MSL for that part of the flight at those altitudes that is of more than 30 minutes duration; and
(2) Above 12,000 feet MSL.
Sure, you can “walk” around at 14,000 – and I too have driven to the top of both Washington and Mt Evans in CO. But that is NOT “flying safely” … And this plane is as worthy of mention as the Wright brothers’ 1908 flights from a cow pasture. They too flew in a circle. But the Wright brother’s at least carried a passenger.
Given the air temps at altitude, this too is a limiting factor since I doubt that there is spare energy for heating.
Mark W – it’s a question of acclimatisation, on the ground you go up slowly (even slower than Solar2). Piloting an aircraft you also need all your wits about you which you won’t get with the partial pressure of O2 above 10K feet
In US you can drive on highest paved road in country – 14000 ft – Mount Evans Colorado. By car there is no time for acclimatisation too. Personally I have driven from 0 to 12000 feet on White Mountain California. Definitely you can feel it, not very pleasant, but it doable.
Don’t forget we are talking about 6 days, not just a few hours at high altitude. Low levels of oxygen and cold for 6 days is dangerous. It is nothing like a quick hike or drive up a mountain for a few hours.
“Borschberg” means what, “mountain of borscht”?
Strange name.
Borscht is nummy – it can’t be beet!
What you skeptics seems to have failed to understand is that this project demonstrates that as solar panels become more efficient and materials become stronger and lighter, we will soon have large scale commercial air transport powered only by clean energy sources.
This will occur when solar panels reach 100,000% efficiency and when reinforced polymers have negative weight.
“Hey. They laughed at Louis Armstrong when he said he was gonna go to the moon. Now he’s up there, laughing at them.” – Blades of Glory.
You people will be the ones who look retarded, when we green-tards are all floating about in our solar jet-packs. (erm…possibly some sarc. involved, maybe)
indefatigablefrog
Welllll … technically, I’d think that if they had “any” surplus electric power at all, they’d use it to power a very small air compressor to inflate ridges or chambers in the wings and body to act as stiffeners “almost light as air”. Going one step further, you’d use He to inflate a larger body that encompasses the entire ship and can carry larger cargo and more passengers …. say up to the maximum of 1000 feet and Trans-Atlantic non-stop flights against the wind. For a profit no less.
There are many ways in which this design could be improved upon.
By some margin, at least.
The principle area for improvement currently would be to scale the design up further.
Over time solar efficiency and power/weight ratio will improve.
But fundamentally, it will never generate more power than is contained in the quantity of sunlight shining on the top of the airframe and that ain’t very much.
What I think that they should do is create some sort of energy dense fuel down here on earth and then use it to power some sort of engine that drives the vehicle forward through the sky.
What? We already did that?!!!
Say I think I may set up a fund me account and set out to sail a paper airplane around the world. You know, toss the most aerodynamic paper plane directly east ward walk over to it and toss it again eastward until I reach an Ocean; board a ship and continue to toss the plane eastward on the deck as we cross the sea (our boat will need to be specially equipped to avoid embarrassing “paper plane overboard” events). As we encounter a new continent our ship can sail on with most of the support crew to the next major sea crossing and await my pedestrian aviator arrival as we set out to claim the fastest circumvention of the globe by a paper airplane and our place in the immortal Guinness Book of World Records. I judge we should beat the solar impulse in time spent on the project by a year (unless, of course, the crew or your intrepid explorer find themselves charmed by some exotic place and remain longer than expected to promote the gilded grace of gliding.)
It would have to be made from unbleached, recycled paper … naturally
Extra points if you don’t use back up paper planes, just stick with 1.
(Dip nets are ok.)
yep yep especially if we are in a location that we really need an excuse to stay in a couple of more days “the sponsors or the Folded Wing announced today that they need to allow the paper to dry before resuming their record breaking journey to immortality”
As long as you are doing it to save the planet, it should be a great (financial) success!
Do you have a design for the plane? If not, I have one I’ve used for 45 years which outperforms all others I’ve seen.
Your design has stood the test of time? There used to be a neat little program called “Paper Airplanes” with several print/fold designs.
Any way that you could link to a pic/design of your plane?
@ur momisugly Tom and Alan the way this thing is taking off we should set up a board of directors and start vetting the staff don’t you think we should start with a basic design and then invite contributions until we achieve a consensus of 97% contributors to the design?
What a concept. They don’t call you “sage” for nothing.
Alan: It’s this one. I’m not the original designer.
http://www.ncgraphicarts.com/ryan/other/eagleins.gif
Maybe we could add a solar cell to power something on it, though I don’t know what.
Blinking lights?
I tweak the design in a couple of ways. First, after you fold down the top, you fold each side over, align its edge with the opposite 45 degree edge of the triangle an make a crease, and then proceed per the diagram. The extra creases will end up running front to back on the upper surface of each wing, giving them more of an airfoil shape. Also if you don’t fold back the nose 1/2 inch as they suggest in the diagram, it seems to fly slower. Lastly, the dihedral of the wings and location of the final fold (making the “fuselage” taller or shorter) has a big effect.
@Tom Not to worry on the issue of originality of design we are ,after all, conducting our courageous, epic, record setting, endeavor in the shadow of the most advanced industrial economies in the history of the world and they are notoriously humble and selfless when allowing fruitcakes like us to claim we are pioneers in the quest to creatively entertain ourselves and the credulous! I like the idea of running lights, LED of course, but I worry so that a solar cell might be construed as ballast and the people would think we are just throwing a rock around the world.
Or a golf ball. But since our glorious effort will save the planet we have to get serious. Is there some sort of thin lightweight elastic material with variable resilience as an electric current passes through it? It could be used to bend the wings and provide aerodynamic control…
call it… muscle
The first circumnavigation of the globe by a paper airplane powered by muscle! I like it and it will advance the cause of greeness everywhere by using more energy for work accomplished than almost anything else I can think of provided, of course, that we retain a support staff of sufficient skills and duplication of duties to carry this endeavor forward relentlessly. Maybe we’ll need another boat.
By the way Tom I changed the design of the plane because I couldn’t follow the damn directions. It flew nice and straight though!
So a frog’s leg Alan?
While the point of “solar power isn’t currently a practical fuel for aircraft” is a valid one, I don’t think it’s entirely fair to criticize the effort to fly a solar plane around the Earth. The technology is fringe. The plane is fragile and tiny. But, no one would have criticized Charles Lindbergh because the Spirit of St. Louis couldn’t carry 60 passengers with luggage. They’re just trying to bring attention to the technology, get funding, and try to scale up the technology.
Personally, I think it’s a dead end, but I don’t begrudge them their effort. After all, flying a solar powered plane is pretty cool. I wonder if an anthracite fueled plane could manage it. That would be fun, too.
For me, the people doing this flight project get an “A” for their efforts, but “F-” overall, for their BS proselytizing.
More instructive if they used nuclear fuel or plasma drive that would be a “Lucky Lindy” kind of project. This is more an “I believe in unicorns” sort of effort.
Yeah. A nuke powered aircraft project would be great. Controversial as hell, but much more likely to work. They could make a light and strong armor to encapsulate the fuel and reactor that could survive a crash – call it a “Black Box” Drive or something like that, to emphasize how safe it is.
We’ve been developing the science of aeronautics for over 100 years.
Solar cells have been improving for even longer, as have batteries and electric motors.
None of these “technologies” are fringe.
What they are is impractical, and they always will be.
True. But, Solar Aeronautics is a pretty fringe idea. I’m surprised that it works at all. Making it practical? That would sure as hell surprise me. But, hey, it would be the good type of surprise – like finding out unicorns are real. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but if they do, I wish them the best in their attempts.
Fragile I agree but ‘Tiny’ not so,Length: 21.85 m (71.7 ft)
Wingspan: 63.4 m (208 ft).
In 1943 US Congressman Jennings Randolph flew from Morgantown WV to Washington National Airport in his single engined Stinson powered by aviation fuel derived entirely from coal:
http://www.wvcoal.com/research-development/wv-supervises-wyoming-coal-to-aviation-fuel.html
According to the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) the world has over 130 years of known coal reserves. It seems logical to me that the aviation industry should actively be pursuing this source of fuel even as an interim measure between present oil based fuel and the next technology, whatever that may be.
And why do all the catastrophic global warming doomsters get all the publicity?
Come on coal industry – I am sure that Lord Christopher Monckton would be happy to sit in the back of a resurrected Shorts Empire Class flying boat full of coal derived fuel sipping his Johnny Walker Black Label and munching on his Scottish shortbread biscuits. It could pick him up at Loch Ness then fly non stop Pole to Pole and he could even take snaps en route of the increasing sea ice over Antarctica.
That would much, much better than getting up the nose of the Royal Anti Science Society of Edinburgh at one of their meetings wouldn’t it?
What countries has the BGR studied? According to this source, there is about 250 years of known coal reserves left in the United States alone: http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/topics/encyclopedia/coal/
ln addition, the Energy Information Administration quantifies the coal reserve this way: as of January 1, 2014, a demonstrated reserve base of 480 billion short tons of coal, and an estimated recoverable coal reserve of 256 billion short tons (that number assumes that property rights, among other things, would prevent the mining of all of the demonstrated reserve base). I don’t know how to translate that into how many years of reserves that is, but it sure seems like a lot. See http://www.eia.gov/coal/reserves/
It looks like a lot of fun. Just ask yourselves if you’d refuse if someone offered to give you a lightly powered glider. You betcha. I have no need to fly across the Pacific. I’d be up in it every sunny day!
I’m a sceptic, but less cynical than I thought after reading the comments. I get an entirely different take on this. It is wonderful support for the very unmalthusian idea that any and all problems can be solved with the application of human ingenuity (‘engineer’ comes from the same root). To me, this trip and concept underscores that we have no need to worry about the future.
All those who worry about what we are going to do without fossil fuels as they get used up, without other mineral resources, or that we will do untold damage by using them, etc. can rest assured that human ingenuity will solve whatever problems that arise with enough forewarning, except for the civilization-killing totalitarian menace that we just can’t seem to put behind us. Object lessons don’t get heeded by them. There will be men (it was said by someone that “man embraces woman”!) of ill will born into every generation that we have to pay for like a huge tax on human progress.
Perceived shortages and irreparable harm are an irreparable shortage of imagination by the few who beat this drum incessantly. The doers will go about their tasks akin to saving the Nile crocodile while the croc is trying to bite their heads off (I use this metaphor often because it is most apt).
I like this little plane.
“To me, this trip and concept underscores that we have no need to worry about the future.”
Uhh . . . Mr. Pearce, I expect to be fully, seriously, completely dead in the future. I would have to be mental to worry about the future.
I was really meaning the whole scare thing about global warming or population growth or whatever fear. No need to fear. We don’t live in a petri dish waiting for the boundaries to be reached. Chances are I may be gone before you, so I’m using the “everybody we” here.
I wonder what is more difficult flying around the world in a balloon or flying around the world in a solar powered craft. In one case you are at the mercy of the winds and the other the sun.
At least the guy in the balloon is not pontificating about what his flight proves for the future of mankind. It seems environmentalists never tire of blowing their egos up to the size of hot air balloons. Actually that is good idea for the next generation of clean energy air transport; the amount of hot air the renewable energy movement creates could certainly power entire fleets of hot air balloons.
Excited by the military applications . Can one make a Stealth – capable spy drone . No exhaust for heat seeking missiles to lock onto , but need to reduce radar profile against microwave tipped missiles.
Hope the Pentagon and UK Min of Defence are following this story.
Tongue in cheek Alan . Acerbic note to counter some of the saccharine, pious, comments above.
FYI
Steam Powered Flight. At least this one had space for more than the pilot but we’re still waiting the potential.
“And One More
This is a history of piston engines, and not all piston engines have been internal-combustion types. The gasoline engine made the airplane possible, but steam has always had its advocates, and, in 1930, the steam engine finally powered an airplane. Besler, a maker of logging locomotives, installed a V-twin compound in a Waco Ten (some sources say a Travelair) and flew successfully in California. Steam enthusiasts, as might be expected, went bananas at this, but Besler broke their hearts by announcing that he had no intention of trying to develop his engine further; he had proved that it could be done and was satisfied (Fig. 11-17).”
From Smith, H. (1986). “A History of Aircraft Piston Engines”. Sunflower University Press.
Very cool. Thanks for the info. These might be even more feasible with modern ceramics. I wonder if anyone is still working on anything like this.
Didn’t think of this at time of posting
Imagine what Besler might have done had government subsidies been available?
When the The Solar Impulse 2 takes off on any leg of their journey – are we assured the batteries are solar charged ? – Or has mains power been used ?
Does anybody know ?
Ohh you green meanie! Just so you understand that means you are mean to greens! Asking pointed questions like that! It’s just so, so, so…mean… to insist that environmentalist “proof of concept” actually accomplish it!
From the looks of all they’ve done so far, I’d say they have enough integrity to pull this off, or fail trying by honest means.
Yes, all ‘Green Technology’ has a dirty ‘Carbon’ backup.
Solar panels are absolutely magical and were a major source of energy for 5 years in our off road RV exploits. There is no doubt they have a magnificent outlook – when used in the right context.
But as far as aviation is concerned I am afraid the Solar Impulse is no more a precursor to the future of flight than Howard Hughes Spruce Goose was. Hughes Goose may have only made one short hop but it WAS built to withstand the normal forces of Nature and do something useful.
Hate to be a doomsayer but the Impulse is an accident waiting to happen as soon as it strikes any sort of bad weather or heavy turbulence. Yes, we all admire human endeavour and bravo to the brave Andre Borschberg. But I always remember the old crew room poster “there are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots”. Like the sea, flight can be very unforgiving.
Be very, very careful Andre because the good world wide publicity you are getting at the moment for the global warming cause will completely sink when the Impulse ends up in a crumpled mass in the water and you become lunch for a Pacific Ocean tiger shark.
Actually the spruce goose needed to make that flight in order to collect the government pay to build it. Howard Hughes was just crazy enough to risk his own life for a government subsidy! Into aviation history and beyond!
But, did not the Goose fly more effectively than this thing?
Hughes was putting LOTS of his own money into it by the middle of the project. But, true, it was only one method of many to bridge the early gap caused by submarine losses in early WWII.
not completely up on the history but I’m certain the goose’ only flight was to qualify it for financial considerations. If it hadn’t been air worthy Hughes would have lost a bunch. Not much of a flyer that one.
@RAC, From simply a flight performance perspective, I’d say this thing has done better than the Goose because the Goose never got out of ground effect.
Andre Borschberg is lucky he is still alive. That thing he calls a solar plane should have crashed far earlier. But at least he had the sense to avoid the bad weather.
Had a look at this ‘Farce’ a couple of days ago, apparently It uses battery and solar power to gain height and then in hours of darkness,glides down gently in the hope of no cloud at daybreak.
That is why they have to have the most favourable weather conditions,no headwinds and plenty of sun.
I watched the so called ‘Progress’ on flightradar24 over the sea of Japan,what a joke,it actually went backwards in certain parts.
They will now be looking for tail winds and zero cloud to blow them to Hawii.
You can all follow the Bullshine here at http://www.solarimpulse.com/
“Bullshine”
+1 – A new favorite word. Thanks.
This reminds me of a program the “Mythbusters” did. . . .on whether it would be possible for a lead balloon to float.
So they constructed a huge balloon out of quite thin lead. . .filled it with helium, and sure enough, they had a lead balloon that was buoyant enough to lift one of them off the ground.
Now it had no practical application. . .but they were able to prove the feasibility of the concept.
Now apply that to a CO2 filled balloon of lead.
OOPS.
Watch it again, the cargo was a small basket containing a styrofoam doll for a total cargo of maybe 50 grams.
Their ability to demonstrate a lead balloon was only due to the availability of tissue thin lead sheets.
In a sense, they failed. The ballon was less than 100 percent lead. The lead sheets were held together with sticky tape. The lead foil was so thin that many leaks developed during the lift. A fully lead balloon would not have lifted without many repairs.
In the end, that was an entertaining episode of Mythbusters, Adams balloon design was brilliant.
Em one of the support planes is a MASSIVE Russian transporter IL 76, the other is a turboprop ATR 72
It’s supposed to be a 25 day round the world flight and CO2 free yet so far it’s about 3 months.
“Two other aircraft — an ATR 72 and Ilyushin 76 — were carrying equipment for the solar plane and a 70 support staff, said Soe Paing, a member of the plane’s local task force team. Myanmar’s government was picking up the tab for the 20,000 gallons of fuel needed for the support planes on the Mandalay leg, he said.”
“Dozens of trees had to be cleared ahead of the Solar Impulse 2’s arrival at the Mandalay International Airport for its giant mobile hangar and exhibition tent, said Taik Aung, the country’s director of air navigation and safety division. Towering shrubs along the runway also needed to be trimmed to accommodate the plane’s 72-meter wing span, said Corinne Henchoz Pignani, of the Swiss Embassy in Yangon.” (that’s green !)
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMARCH 19, 2015 reported in Yahoo News March 20, 2015 and Daily Mail, NYT etc.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/solar-plane-leaves-india-next-stop-myanmar-055852047.html
This was just a stunt, designed to entice even more government subsidy funds out of the knucklehead politicians who still drink the Kool-Aid of renewable energy. Nothing to see here, just move on.
I propose adapting the plane design to incorporate a large rubber band. This is then wound up on the ground by coupling it to a wind turbine. Once fully wound, the plane can take off and perform a powered flight and then glide gracefully to the ground when the rubber band has unwound.
A plane of such design may of course be rather heavy since it would need to be structurally sound to take the load of the wound rubber band, but aprat from that it has many advantages and as children we have all played with scaled down models so we are familiar with the concept.
But then again as adults, we put away childish things.
Two months!? Using an SR-71 is a much better marketing tool then using stone wheels!
Geez!
given the BBCs coverage on the environment I would love to see someone take it to the human rights courts for false imprisonment of people who did not pay their licence fee. Surely having to fund ones own brainwashing has to be a real breach of human rights.
That is was an internal management group decision to violate its charter should have been reason enough to have the licence fee ended on the day the existence of the committee of 28 was revealed.
Sadly British government integrity now shows the Chinese up in a good light.