Solar Impulse Flies 26 Hrs

[George S. Bower]

John K may have already posted this. It's a little out of data but still interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/wo...lane.html?_r=1

[ChrisC]

Interesting that the article doesn't mention the batteries (critical for making it through the night!) and I had to dig on the project website to find that the batteries are "polymer lithium". I wonder why they are downplaying it.

One of the "partners" in the project is Air Energy GmbH ( http://www.airenergy.de/ ) but I think they just did the battery system engineering, not manufacture.

http://www.solarimpulse.com/common/d...&group=partner

At the bottom of that page is a "suppliers" listing that includes AC Propulsion. Another one of them might be a battery supplier but none of the names rang a bell for me.

[JohnK]

George thanks for that article, I had not seen it. The picture alone was great! Also regarding the challenges of flying at those altitudes there was a guy in our local flying club that attempted a record altitude in his little homebuilt canard airplane and there were some strong similarities. He did succeed in his attempt by the way. He was up against big name, big money folks, where he was on a shoestring. At one point there was a loud "bang" that seemed like maybe the whole plane had come appart. It was due to very low temperatures causing dimensional shrinkage (it was made of fiberglass) and the glue sealing the canopy to the airframe cracked. Also, frost completely covered the inside of the canopy and he had to use instrument flying techniques, but that was a challenge because he had removed most of his instruments to lighten the plane. Also at those temperatures the engine oil becomes very thick. During one of his practice runs above Flint, Michigan the oil got too thick and his engine seized. I think he was at 24,000 feet and everyone on the ground (ATC) was ready to declare an emergency. But he had an 18 to 1 glide ratio and claimed "I could have landed anywhere in Michigan". Sorry for rambling off topic.