But do they charge for carry-ons?

Very cool.

"A moped like 26 MPH". That's got to be a new record for staying aloft at a slow speed.

I heard it was more like 40mph.

I was just going by what the linked article said (actually 28 MPH):

"Once airborne, it cruised a mile high for 87 minutes, reaching a moped-like top speed of 28mph.

yeah, I understand - I heard the story on the radio. Cool beans, nonetheless.

I love that statement in the Fact File box: The solar energy received by the Earth in one hour would meet the world's energy demands for a year.

I don't know how this plane will help develop solar power technology, but surely the research will make some kind of addition.

The military will probably like a look at it for drone observation aircraft that don't need to ever be refueled.

GRUMPY

There is a guy named Stan Ovshinsky who's done some remarkable things with solar power creation. Back in the early 90's I stumbled across an article about him shortly after he'd invented and begun marketing a flexible, cloth-like solar generating material,

One he'd gotten contracts for from the military was 1' X 4', would unfold and recharge a Bradley tank battery in 2 hours.

Amazing guy. Still inventing things. He'd figured out a way to create circuits at the molecular level. There were plans at that time for hard drives that could be stacked and speak to each other too operating at the terrabyte level. This was back in the early 90's.

Stan Ovshinsky is still inventing and operating a new company at 88 years old.

That's cool!

Pretty cool but I'm waiting for a wind powered plane before I get excited.

Or, even better, how about a clean coal powered plane????

Pretty cool but I'm waiting for a wind powered plane before I get excited.

Or, even better, how about a clean coal powered plane????

You are selling yourself short, Danni. It's all about a nuclear plane. I can see it now, join us on the maiden flight of the 3 mile high island.

$106 million for a flying Yugo wind-up toy? This is the face of "green jobs."

Flying at the speed of light, so to speak.

May the wind be at your back.

It's the only way you'll get anywhere with this crate.

It has a wingspan about the size of a 747 and it only weighs as much as a small car. Damn, I wouldn't want to be caught in a brisk breeze with that nightmare of a design.

You gotta start somewhere.This would be inconceivable 50 years ago. History has been made and somebody somewhere was bound to do it someday. Impractical now but who knows five years from now?

the future is fuel cells.

But do they charge for carry-ons?

Maybe the carry-on charges?
###
$106 million for a flying Yugo wind-up toy? This is the face of "green jobs."

Yup, they won't ever advance the technology. Now excuse me while I go change a tube on my IBM computer. I hope it's one on this floor and not in the parts on the second or third floor.

On the bright side, I heat my house with just the punch cards I use up posting on Drudge!

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Solar Plane Makes FIrst Flight

Yea, but try to book a "red eye" on one of those bad boys!

"Yea, but try to book a "red eye" on one of those bad boys!"

The article does say it is intended to fly day and night from solar power. Pretty impressive technology.

"$106 million for a flying Yugo wind-up toy? This is the face of "green jobs."

#13 | Posted by Diablo"

Ah yes the face of America's conservatives: No memory, no perspective, no imagination and no future.

This is the face of "green jobs."

It's one of the faces of the future.

/If humanity is gonna have any appreciable future, that is.

Where's your solutions?

Just wait fer Jebus to come back and fix everything?

Don't Worry Be Happy cos God has a plan?

Why do Rtards hate progress, particularly when it is necessary to our continued survival as a species?

Be Well.

"Why do Rtards hate progress, particularly when it is necessary to our continued survival as a species?'

Duh!!! Cuz Progressive has progress in it!!!! You do realize Progress = Communism, I know cus Glenn Beck told me and Victoria Jackson. He taught us real well!

Duh!!! Cuz Progressive has progress in it!!!! You do realize Progress = Communism, I know cuz Glenn Beck told me and Victoria Jackson. He taught us real well!

~Danni

Point well taken.

See also: "Social Justice" is a code word for "Marxism"

/This, despite the fact the term "Social Justice" appeared in the Federalist Papers back in 1787 when America was first coming into being and before Karl Marx was even born.

Be Well.

I'll give Glennnn Beck credit for one thing: he's shrewdly taken the measure of his audience's lack of critical thinking skills. "Progressive"? Baaaaaad. "Social justice"? Baaaaaaad. I'm not sure they'd miss much of a bleat if he told them "Christmas" is now a verboten term because it's an anagram for "March Sits" which is just another way of saying "Marxists." (Or, for that matter, "Cram Shits" which cannot be used unless and until he gets a fat endorsement contract from the good folks at the Phillips' Concentrated Milk of Magnesia fermentation vats.)

The military will probably like a look at it for drone observation aircraft that don't need to ever be refueled.

#7 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY

Great spy plane. Flies at 5,000 feet at less than 30 MPH and has a wing span as large as a 747.

"Why do Rtards hate progress, particularly when it is necessary to our continued survival as a species?"

In this case, probably because it was built in Europe and is therefore a pile of junk.

We all remember the "Wright Flyer"... heck, it could carry baggage, fly in tornadoes, and could have broken the sound barrier except it didn't have a windshield.

Hehe... "Wright Flyer", what a joke! Almost flew 900 feet before the wind wrecked it. With a gas engine, no less. Pathetic.

red, the spies would be standing in line for it if it was built here in the USA.

Baaaaaad. "Social justice"? Baaaaaaad.

#26 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis

Now that you are out in the sheep pasture, are you in front or behind them when you call?

That's really cool, and better then a pedal powered plane! But keep in mind solar is a multi decade project.

A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050.