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| Messages 1 - 22 of total 22 in this topic |
pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Keep it on the taco. I like the pic. Lots of city lights that need juice. Power is way kool. My favorite is piezo electronics. Sun power is way kool too.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - May 4, 2013 - 03:58pm PT
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Reminds me of the first moon landing. I read the Voyager book - around the world without refueling - that was quite a trip but this is so awesome. If I remember my numbers correctly, Voyager took of with 3500 lbs of fuel. That's what SolarImpulse weighs.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Rather a meaningless stunt but still cool in its uniqueness.
Those four motors combined put out a whopping 40 HP! Rips along at 45 mph.
A high performance sailplane could probably make the trip faster. ;-)
Of course, the question on everyones' mind is: wag bag or poop chute?
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - May 4, 2013 - 04:34pm PT
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You under-rate the power of a single horse! Goes to show what a 'horspower'
driven society we are. Somebody does have a 350 under their hood and they are a tiny weiny.
I had a 1.5 horse tiller I used for a garden when I was young. Since that time I have never underestimated the powe of a single horsepower. The real significance here is the real time immediate use of the solar energy.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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HaHaHaHa! So, just using my pea brain I come up with a wing-loading factor
of 2:1 - considerably higher than a vulture but pretty impressive for something
so large. The downside of that is you know they will be studiously avoiding
any possible turbulence.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - May 4, 2013 - 04:43pm PT
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I didn't think you would be so negative after seeing you on the vege thread. I think it's amazing how we can run around so effectively just shoving greens in our mouths - how much energy we as animals can store and go for days just drinking water. Dude, it's the tip of the iceberg of what's to come - not necessarily in aviation but everywhere. Sh#t, if you can fly with solar energy - the sky is the limit.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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I'm not negative! I'm just a realist.
As a long-time sailplane pilot I gots high aspect ratio attitude, baby!
And I run quite well on vegies. You just don't want to be downwind of me.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - May 4, 2013 - 04:48pm PT
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I smell ya.....I mean hear ya!
It's not really about flight or farting but the conversion of energy.
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
honeoye falls,ny.greeneck alleghenys
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I am w/ya McHale,Solar is getting better every day.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - May 7, 2013 - 09:27pm PT
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I think we can expect quite a bit from solar in the near future. Good video Jim.
"In mid-May, the ultra-lightweight plane will begin the second leg of its trip, taking off in Phoenix and landing in Dallas, Texas. Toward the end of May, Solar Impulse will depart for St. Louis, Mo.; the fourth leg will take the plane from St. Louis to Washington, D.C.; and the fifth and last leg will end in New York City in late June or early July."
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - May 23, 2013 - 02:57am PT
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I can't believe I did not see anything about this today. I just happened to check in on it, thinking with all the stormy weather in the midwest, the flight would not be happening for awhile. Its just landed in Dallas!
http://www.solarimpulse.com/sitv/tag/Missions-flights
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Delhi Dog
climber
Good Question...
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May 23, 2013 - 04:58am PT
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Two things, the first;
"...SI inspires the hell out of me."
That's cool as we all know it's important to get the hell out...(bada bing)
and second;
that last photo explains a lot about "those weird lights" them aliens fly around with.
Butt to be sure, when I first read about SI I too was pretty excited of future possibilities. I'm glad someone is doing this kind of shite!
cheers and TFPU!
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mountainlion
Trad climber
California
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May 23, 2013 - 10:22am PT
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Great Post!!
My cousin worked as a student on GM's solar car project. Unfortunately funding for the project wasn't in line with what bringing a realistic solar powered car to market would be...just an example of PRETENDING to try bringing a solar powered car to market...shortly after testing the car and saying it just wasn't realistic GM discontinued the project.
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McHale's Navy
Trad climber
Panorama City, California & living in Seattle
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Topic Author's Reply - May 23, 2013 - 05:17pm PT
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It's very remarkable indeed! Was it in the news much this time? I must be psychic. I hadn't paid much attention to it after Phoenix and just happened to look it up last night and it had landed almost as I was looking into it - within the hour.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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That really is amazing...what an engineering feat that could portend great things for our futures.
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son of stan
Boulder climber
San Jose CA
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Hope they some good masseuses for the pilot when he lands.
The little cockpit! Can he stretch out at all? Recline?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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The huge wing reminds me of the Daedalus Project (human powered flight).
It couldn't fly in high winds, so they had to wait many weeks for calm
conditions to make the flight from Crete to Santorini (1988).
[Click to View YouTube Video]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Daedalus
The SolarImpulse wing must be heavier, so it would be less at the mercy of the prevailing breeze. :-)
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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about 500 miles left to go to Kapolai. Just after 3 in the afternoon Hawaii time. Speed over ground right now is 50 knots with 44 kts true airspeed. So he should be there sometime after midnight. Perhaps he'll land in the dark or perhaps wait for dawn? Solar Impulse is by design very low on battery by dawn. Will be interesting to see how they time the landing. Will he be too excited to get any sleep tonight?
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| Messages 1 - 22 of total 22 in this topic |
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