# Solar Impulse: Oman to India journey sets new record



## micropage7 (Mar 12, 2015)

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Solar Impulse, the fuel-free aeroplane, has successfully completed the second leg of its historic attempt to fly around the world.*

Project chairman, Bertrand Piccard, piloted the vehicle from Muscat in Oman to Ahmedabad in India, crossing the Arabian Sea in the process.

Tuesday's journey took just over 15 hours.

The distance covered - 1,468km - set a new world record for a flight in a piloted solar-powered plane.

The vehicle has another 10 legs ahead of it over the course of the next five months.

Included in that itinerary will be demanding stretches when the craft has to fly over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.




Piccard is sharing the flying duties with project partner and CEO, Andre Borschberg, who made Monday's inaugural trip from Abu Dhabi to Muscat.

Solar Impulse arrived in Ahmedabad in darkness, its wings illuminated by LEDs, and its propellers driven by the energy stored in its batteries.

The plane had left Muscat at 06.35 (02:35 GMT) and put its wheels down at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 23.25 local time (17:55 GMT).

Preparations are already under way for the next leg to Varanasi in northeast India, although mission planners say that will not be for another four days, at least.

The time will be spent carrying a campaigning message on the topic of clean technologies to the local Ahmedabad people, and the wider Indian population.








The Solar Impulse project has already set plenty of other world records for solar-powered flight, including making a high-profile transit of the US in 2013.

But the round-the-world venture is altogether more dramatic and daunting, and has required the construction of an even bigger plane than the prototype, Solar Impulse-1.

This new model has a wingspan of 72m, which is wider than a 747 jumbo jet. And yet, it weighs only 2.3 tonnes.

Its light weight will be critical to its success.

So, too, will the performance of the 17,000 solar cells that line the top of the wings, and the energy-dense lithium-ion batteries it will use to sustain night-time flying.

Operating through darkness will be particularly important when the men have to cross the Pacific and the Atlantic.

The slow speed of their prop-driven plane means these legs will take several days and nights of non-stop flying to complete.

Piccard and Borschberg - they take it in turns to fly solo - will have to stay alert for nearly all of the time they are airborne.

They will be permitted only catnaps of up to 20 mins - in the same way a single-handed, round-the-world yachtsman would catch small periods of sleep.

They will also have to endure the physical discomfort of being confined in a cockpit that measures just 3.8 cubic metres in volume - not a lot bigger than a public telephone box.





The Solar Impulse venture recalls other great circumnavigation feats in aviation - albeit fuelled ones.

In 1986, the Voyager aircraft became the first to fly around the world without stopping or refuelling.

Piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the propeller-driven vehicle took nine days to complete its journey.

Then, in 2005, this time was beaten by the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, which was solo-piloted by Steve Fossett.

A jet-powered plane, GlobalFlyer completed its non-stop circumnavigation in just under three days.

Andre Borschberg is a trained engineer and former air-force pilot, he has built a career as an entrepreneur in internet technologies.

Bertrand Piccard is well known for his ballooning exploits. Along with Brian Jones, he completed the first non-stop, circumnavigation of the world in 1999, using the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon. The Piccard name has become synonymous with pushing boundaries.

Bertrand's father, Jacques Piccard, was the first to reach the deepest place in the ocean (a feat achieved with Don Walsh in the Trieste bathyscaphe in 1960). And his grandfather, Auguste Piccard, was the first person to take a balloon into the stratosphere, in 1931.













http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31812935


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## micropage7 (Mar 15, 2015)

*Solar Impulse 2: Rain delays next leg of solar plane's round-the-world trip*





_Solar Impulse 2 in the hangar at Ahmedabad's international airport_

Poor weather has delayed Solar Impulse 2's departure from India on the next leg of its epic bid to become the first plane to fly around the world powered solely by the sun.

The aircraft had been due to leave Ahmedabad city in the western state of Gujarat on Sunday and travel on to Myanmar after a short stopover in the holy city of Varanasi in northern India.

But weather forecasts showed there was a good chance of rain in Ahmedabad on Saturday night (local time), and organisers said that "due to the weather", the plane would now take off on Tuesday, March 17.

A senior Ahmedabad airport official who asked not to be named said the team would assess the flying conditions on Monday evening, adding that "moisture levels are higher than usual at this time of the year".

Solar Impulse 2 landed in Ahmedabad about midnight on Tuesday, finishing its second leg in little less than 16 hours after taking off from the Omani capital Muscat to break a distance record for solar planes.

The sea legs pose the greatest challenge for the Solar Impulse team as any loss of power over the water would leave the pilot no alternative but to bail out and await rescue by boat.

Much bigger crossings lie ahead as Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, who alternate at the controls of the single-seat aircraft, traverse the great oceans.

The longest single leg will see one of them fly solo non-stop for five days and nights across the Pacific from Nanjing, China, to Hawaii, a distance of 8,500 kilometres.

Muscat was the first of 12 planned stops on the plane's journey around the world from Abu Dhabi, with a total flight time of around 25 days spread over five months.

Monday's maiden leg took Borschberg 13 hours and two minutes, while Piccard's flight to Ahmedabad of 1,468 kilometres was said to be the longest point-to-point distance flown by a solar-powered plane.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-...n-delays-next-leg-of-round-world-trip/6320404


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## Ferrum Master (Mar 15, 2015)

imho I see this think kind of useless... Those engines use rare earth metal magnets (ie ain't suitable for mass production). And the whole thing is more like a toy...

Hydrogen engine? Yes, that would be more fun.


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## 64K (Mar 15, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> imho I see this think kind of useless... Those engines use rare earth metal magnets (ie ain't suitable for mass production). And the whole thing is more like a toy...
> 
> Hydrogen engine? Yes, that would be more fun.



It will probably have no practical use but imo it's cool to do this project just because we can. Yeah, a hydrogen powered plane would be more practical if we can get hydrogen cheaper than it is. From some articles I've read Lockheed may be bringing fusion reactors the size of a truck to mainstream use in the next 10 years. That will be a tremendous leap forward for humanity if it happens.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 15, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> imho I see this think kind of useless... Those engines use rare earth metal magnets (ie ain't suitable for mass production). And the whole thing is more like a toy...
> 
> Hydrogen engine? Yes, that would be more fun.




rare earth magnets doesnt mean there arent a lot of them, the ingredients are abundant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_magnet

rare earth magnets are ace.....check this..........why dont we build a massive one of these in a doughnut shaped tube?  Now that would be cool, magnet powered windblown electric loveliness.









They are equally abundant on the moon.

The technology in Solar Impulse is incredible, hydrogen powered craft is a different thing entirely.


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## lilhasselhoffer (Mar 15, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> rare earth magnets doesnt mean there arent a lot of them, the ingredients are abundant.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_magnet
> 
> ...




I...what....I don't even...  Just no.



1) This is a massive proof of concept style project.  It isn't focused on sustainability, cost, or even practical usage.  To conjecture otherwise is just moronic.
2) Rare earth materials still need to be processed, formed, and made into something useful.  The problem isn't that they are rare, but their lack of extreme abundance means you spend as much energy collecting it as you would on conventional materials.  Unless rare earths suddenly get cheaper, or current technologies become more expensive, this only proves the old addage that with enough money and time I can do anything.
3) The linked video is stupid, and 99% of the commenters are stupid.  Sticking a magnet near a fan does nothing.  It could rotate it slightly, but once the magnetic field becomes stationary no energy is produced.  The video also demonstrates that the concept is impossible two ways.  The energy required to run that light bulb might only be 15 watts.  This means that if the fan was actually a generator, those 15 watts would be produced even when not hooked up to the light.  Without a way to distribute that energy, the fan should melt down.  Assuming that logic is beyond you, our next bit of contradiction is in the video.  While the fan is spinning, they claim that the light won't work if the magnet is away.  If the fan was some sort of generator it would produce power until the blades stopped.  If the light ran off of another power source, the fan would rotate until fricative losses stopped it without ever lighting up the bulb.



My only conclusion is that you are being fooled by a con-man.  This plane is real, but "free energy" is not.  I'd say that one of two things is happening.  Either there is a battery on the back side of the fan, with a magnetic sensor switching it on and off, or there's an induction power source in the table operating by the same logic.  The variable magnetic fields spin the fan, and the coils within the fan can actually produce a small electrical current.  If this person could demonstrate the "free energy generator" atop a steel table I'd be happy to listen to their work.





Back on topic; yawn.  Drones have already proven this possible.  All we are doing is engineering it bigger, and more prone to human failure.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 15, 2015)

lilhasselhoffer said:


> I...what....I don't even...  Just no.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





I think you read a lot more in my post than what i actually wrote. ,
and  if you think conjecture is moronic many great minds would disagree with you, and no..............logic isnt beyond me.


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## Ferrum Master (Mar 16, 2015)

And resuming it all - it's just an another e-peen extender...


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## micropage7 (Mar 16, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> imho I see this think kind of useless... Those engines use rare earth metal magnets (ie ain't suitable for mass production). And the whole thing is more like a toy...
> 
> Hydrogen engine? Yes, that would be more fun.



it just a starting point, the main point is how far the non fuel technology could run
if this flight run well maybe for the next plane they gonna use "daily"material so the technology could be applied sooner

and toyota has the hydrogen engine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Mirai


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## lilhasselhoffer (Mar 16, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> I think you read a lot more in my post than what i actually wrote. ,
> and  if you think conjecture is moronic many great minds would disagree with you, and no..............logic isnt beyond me.



Allow me to explain.  I do not mean to insult you personally, when I say "if that logic is beyond you." What I mean is that some people will dismiss it as illogical fluff, so a secondary point needs to be made.

A conjecture, without proof, is foolishness; genius is making a conjecture with a factual link that others are incapable of seeing.  The project that has been advertised is not relating to commercial travel.  It isn't relating to some new technology.  The project doesn't even have anything genuinely new or unique to it.  It's taking already available technologies, and finding their engineering limits through use.  While a laudable goal, it is only a proof of what has already been done. We've had drones circumnavigate the world, so a manned flight is simply taking what we already did and discovering if it can do something more difficult.  This isn't supporting alternative energy, it isn't bringing free energy into the discussion, it's just proving that we can engineer bigger.


As to the free energy crap; seriously?  I'm not sure if you're an evangelist of this crap, sarcastic in the extreme, or just poorly informed.  No matter the cause, this is stupid.  You cannot generate energy from a stationary magnet.  There is a small amount of potential energy in aligning an object within the magnetic field, but once the object is aligned within the magnetic field it will resist any attempt to move it.  This means a magnet can get a fan blade to spin, but one it gets to a certain point that blade is actually held in place by the magnet.  This is why motors have to be switched on and off, to produce a variable magnetic field.  

Assuming that is not clear (and it may not be, given the long route taken), I'd suggest you look up how a DC motor works.  It's been a few years, but how stuff works is still an excellent source: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/motor1.htm

Note that the stable magnet doesn't create a force, but the variable magnetic field pushes against the stable magnet.  Without the pushing of a variable magnet the motor is useless.  Given that a generator is a motor in reverse, you can see how it's difficult to take a youtube video as anything more than a hoax.  If you're still adamant that this "free energy" generator is real, I'd love to sell you a formula to make mountain dew glow in the dark; I'll need to get my Nigerian prince to act as my intermediary source for the transaction though.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 16, 2015)

@lilhasselhoffer  apology accepted.


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