

Solar Impulse – Around the world in a solar airplane - equilibrium
http://www.google.com/landing/solarimpulse/

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mgw
Please note that this is not a Google project. The title misleadingly seems to
state that. [1]

Google seems to be doing these campaigns more often recently, to promote
Google+, Hangouts, YouTube livestreams and other products of theirs. (Also see
RSC's "A Midsummer Night's Dream2 [2] for another project to showcase
Google+.)

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse)

[2] [http://dreaming.dream40.org/](http://dreaming.dream40.org/)

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geku
Check as well their official website:
[http://live.solarimpulse.com/](http://live.solarimpulse.com/)

And their list of partners:
[http://www.solarimpulse.com/en/team/partners/](http://www.solarimpulse.com/en/team/partners/)

Google is not listed as a partner neither as investor!

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blaze33
Actually this is not a google project, Google's just doing the live coverage
for the cross-US flight. I learned about solar impulse in 2009 because my
former employer is one the partners.

This project was initiated by Bertrand Piccard in 2003. He is better know for
the first balloon flight around the world in 1999. cf.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Impulse)

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rory096
Seems to me to be a partnership for the streaming of the Solar Impulse guys'
flight, not Google (substantially) financing it. Their website doesn't seem to
mention Google: [http://www.solarimpulse.com](http://www.solarimpulse.com)

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lost-theory
There's an easter egg video if you hover over the 4-color bar in the bottom
right of the page. Direct link:

[http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ap2yUubnw4c?rel=0&fs=1&showinfo...](http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ap2yUubnw4c?rel=0&fs=1&showinfo=0&autoplay=1)

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ben1040
I saw the plane when they came through St Louis last month, and snapped a few
pictures. It's really impressive how big it was; at 208 feet the wingspan is a
few feet shy of a 747-400.

[http://imgur.com/a/wXLUI](http://imgur.com/a/wXLUI)

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RBerenguel
Relatively amazing. Relatively because when I read the title I thought it was
some kind of solar sailing spaceship. That would have been way too cool,
though.

By the way, the page ends with "Here's to the explorers". That phrase kind of
reminds me of something different.

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TeMPOraL
"Here's to the *" reminds me of Google Zeitgeist videos.

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k-mcgrady
The title needs changed. As has been mentioned in other comments Google is
just streaming the live coverage of this and doesn't have much (if anything)
to do with the project.

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andor
"This video is not available"

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rorrr2
Same here. Just record the damn thing and upload to youtube.

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schmrz
I didn't know about this google project. This seems really awesome.

Can someone more knowledgeable please comment on how big is this? Is this
something revolutionary, or is there some catch?

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geku
This is not at all a Google project. Check out their website: Google is even
not listed as one of their partners!

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kailuowang
Is it just me or Google is "focusing" on software projects but going even
wilder on grand sci-fi like projects that seem to demand a lot more budget?

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embolism
Google has nothing to do with this project - it's just on a PR push to
associate it's name with futuristic projects.

[edit: like a cigarette company sponsoring sports events]

