Solar powered plane not due to land 'til after midnight....

Kernel_Sanders

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/solar-plane-heads-to-madrid/story-fn5fsgyc-1226419043798
Madrid gets darker even earlier than we do this time of year, so does this thing have batteries? There's no mention of them in the article!

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/solar-plane-heads-to-madrid/story-fn5fsgyc-1226419043798
Madrid gets darker even earlier than we do this time of year, so does this thing have batteries? There's no mention of them in the article!

can fly at night on battery power

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/solar-powered-airplane-completing-first-international-flight/

Kernel_Sanders

Fruit_and_Nut_Case wrote: »

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/solar-powered-airplane-completing-first-international-flight/

That's the most amazing aviation feat I've read of since that plane which circled the Earth on a single tank of fuel (actually virtually the whole plane was a fuel tank!) The plan to repeat this feat using solar would be difficult because it's not summer worldwide, and simply following a Tropic wouldn't be traveling the full circumference.

EricMears

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

simply following a Tropic wouldn't be traveling the full circumference.

What's wrong with following the equator ? That would of course be the 'full circumference' (indeed, since the planet is oblate it's the biggest possible circumference) and even in the 'depths of winter' it's pretty sunny.

Or is there some subtlety in needing more than 12h of daylight ?

Martyn1981

Here's an article I read on it a few weeks ago. The plane has already done a 26 hour flight above Switzerland.

Check out the cost $100m. Let's hope that MkII is a little cheaper!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2149742/Who-needs-petrol-Solar-plane-flies-Switzerland-Spain-using-drop-fuel-did-24-hours-.html

Total guess, but that huge wingspan looks bigger than 120 feet, so longer than the Wright Brothers first flight.

Mart.