
Solar Impulse breaks solo record - ghosh
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33362290
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samcheng
There was some serious concern that they wouldn't find another opportunity
with good weather this summer. The Japan - Hawaii leg was the longest planned
leg, and really stretched the aircraft's capabilities. If they couldn't find a
good weather window in June (near the summer solstice), they faced ever
shortening-days, and may have had to wait until next year for another attempt.
They may have run out of funding during that year-long wait!

I'm glad they made it!

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tommoor
"Now you can fly longer with no fuel than you can with fuel. So, what Andre
has done is not only a historic first for aviation, it's a historic first for
renewable energies"

~~~
phlobot
Ok, but how much energy and manpower does it take to keep this in working
condition? Even moving the crew from china to japan to service the plain would
have cost money and used fuel from conventional transportation.

It's a vehicle on life-support from fuel but not using it directly.

Cool to see things moving along in the right direction though

~~~
lisper
One step at a time. It took 11 years to get from the Spirit of St. Louis to
the first commercial transatlantic flight.

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tokenadult
Another comment asks about what kind of support was necessary to make this
solar-powered flight. It happens that Gizmodo (yeah, I know) has a detailed
article about that issue, "Flying a Solar Plane Around the World Takes One
Hell of a Ground Crew," published today.

[http://gizmodo.com/flying-a-solar-plane-around-the-world-
tak...](http://gizmodo.com/flying-a-solar-plane-around-the-world-takes-one-
hell-of-1715625434)

~~~
tajen
Very interesting link. Highlights the fallacy of ecologist marketing
operations: Good intentions, but negative carbon footprint.

Anyone else wonders why both Space and the Solar Plane mission have screens
under the desk level? Ergonomists and chiropractors clearly point this out as
a bad setup for employee's bealth, plus they're all ridiculously moving their
laptop sideways to look at their 27" screen. It seems their desk design wants
to communicate a "space mission" ambition although it couldn't be worse for
the body.

~~~
fla
So we should avoid talking about ecology if the communication itself has a
non-negative carbon footprint ? Good luck with that!

As the article quotes: the goal never was to prentend making a zero emission
operation, but rather to sensibilize people to the fact alternatives can
exist, and are worth studing.

A guy dedicates everything to build a solar powered plane that can travel
around the world, just for the sake of it. If that's not some pure Hacker
spirit, then I don't know what it is...

The press is the press, it is optimized for presenting it's own perception as
an absoluth truth.

~~~
tajen
> we should avoid talking about ecology if the communication itself has a non-
> negative carbon footprint

No, we shouldn't. But we often advertise non-green products as green
solutions, and that's terrible because it disrupts people's understanding of
global climate change. People believe the electric car is green, whereas its
carbon footprint is sensibly equal to the petrol-based car if you include the
electricity/petrol lifecycle. People dodge the idea that the carbon footprint
will always be further reduced by carpooling/public transports/not moving
across the Earth every week, rather than by saving 5% or 10% of the petrol.

Yes, we should advertise about ecology. No we shouldn't advertise anti-
ecologist products. If you read between the lines, that's what the author is
demonstrating.

~~~
fla
Solar Impulse is not a product, it's a hack.

Electric cars carbon footprint will eventually decrease with massive adoption.

Petrol sucks. doesn't scale.

EDIT: And yes, it's true that selling something as a ecological when it isn't,
is bad. But at least it's a small step in the right direction.

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devindotcom
FYI this story is a little behind. Borschberg safely landed in Hawaii after a
solo flight of some 117 hours - breaking the previous record by a huge amount
along with some other ones. You can check out the whole last leg on the flight
log, with pics and tweets and such:

[http://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-8-from-Nagoya-to-
Hawaii](http://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-8-from-Nagoya-to-Hawaii)

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Thorondor
Impressive achievement! A further update: Solar Impulse landed today at about
6:00 AM local time in Kalaeloa airport after a 118-hour flight.
[http://www.bbc.com/news/science-
environment-33383521](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33383521)

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bruceb
Congrats to the Solar Impulse team. Surprised this isn't being commented on
more here.

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chinathrow
There is a limited AP and he did naps at max 20min each.

~~~
equalarrow
This is crazy - just put yourself in that scenario and pause for even a
minute.. Amazing to say the least.

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equalarrow
Hah, wow, interesting timing. I just finished reading a decent book on Kindle
about Solar Impulse:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00Q56MYUC](http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00Q56MYUC)

It was a bummer Solar Impulse wasn't able to do the non-stop pacific ocean
leg, but still, it's pretty amazing. I'm surprised that this just hasn't
picked up more news coverage. :( It's completely historic..

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GigabyteCoin
Has he actually been awake for 76 hours straight or is there an autopilot
feature he can enable to get a few micronaps in?

~~~
devindotcom
AFAIK he sleeps for short periods when the plane can cruise without
intervention. The ground crew would wake him if anything needed attending to.
He also does yoga in the cabin to stay limber.

