Solar Airplane
Electronics July 14th, 2008I just saw this article about a solar airplane. Since it is a short article, I will quote it all:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For travelers weary of watching air fares tick upward due to soaring fuel prices, here’s an encouraging piece of news — a plane that can fly around the world on solar power.
On Monday, solar cell maker Trina Solar Ltd said it would supply nearly 300 photovoltaic cells to France’s LISA Airplanes for its Hy-Bird solar and fuel cell powered airplane.
The cells, which will be on the plane’s wings and horizontal tail, will supply enough energy to power a fuel cell for takeoff and on-board power supply, the company said.
Once in the air, the plane will be propelled by an electric engine.
LISA Airplanes expects to complete assembly of the plane by the end of 2009, China-based Trina said.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Andre Grenon)
Will the public care for this type of plane? How long for it to charge to have enough power? How big will the plane be? What is the cost benefit? Lots of questions, but if this works out well, it will obviously be the wave of the future.
Mark Viquesney
July 28th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
One thing to keep in mind is the energy density of gasoline/diesel/jet fuel - you can see the effect in the solar cars that get anywhere near performance to production cars - they have to be ultra light, made with high performance (expensive) materials, and tend to get blown off the road by trucks.
So, will the public care? Not really because this will not be a comparable technology to current airline jets. It won’t have enough power to carry enough passengers at a high enough speed.
A more plausible scenario is to use renewable energy to generate bio-fuels that are compatible with turbine engines.
Eric Kirchner
July 31st, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Eric thanks for your comment. What about fuel cells? Or too heavy? Would solar cells on wings be a good idea still? I didn’t think about the solar cell cars - so I guess the solar airplane may not take off.