Solar Impulse returns from 24 hour test flight 26 hours later
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 8th 2010 8:58PM
posted July 8th 2010 8:58PM
Rest easy, fans of solar-powered aeronautics. Captain Piccard's Solar Impulse has safely returned after 26 hours in the air -- powered by nothing but the sun. The four-engine aircraft, which features 12,000 solar cells arranged on its wingspan, reached a height of almost 29,000 feet before touching down at Payerne Airport near Berne, Switzerland today. The next step? The team is going back to the woodshed, with the hope of developing a plane that will circumnavigate the globe by 2013.
Now we can put hellfire rockets on it and build 24/7 Predator Drones !!!
@nuclearopts
Someone plays too much COD MW2.
@James
Why is that a bad thing?
@nuclearopts
24/7... but how would they reload?
@nuclearopts
pwn n00bs
@nuclearopts Ramirez! Attach these fragile pockets to the Solar Impulse plane!
@elduderino
How bout a laser beam. No ammunition require.
@cdf74dc9 umm...
PEW PEW PEW
..right?
That's awesome!
Heck yeah.
@Blackflag486
You seem to be firing your lazer.
I think there's a pill for that.
@Blackflag486
Gosh yeah, even.
@Gregorian Freak yeah, no way.
They'll be back in 2013? Damn... too long.
Btw, am I the only one that was looking at the article pic wondering, "wtf am I looking at?"
@Plazmic Flame
Yes you are.
@KGBSmurf
Damn... well the thing is so freakin' thin. I thought it was another Engadget photoshop job. Looks like a skateboard, lol
I feel like this is a waste of time. Until we get solar cells and motors that can generate tens of thousands of pounds of thrust, this is useless in today's world. Maybe once we get 50% efficient solar cells can we think about using them on a large scale. Right now I'm stuck with the tiny solar panel keeping my calculator on.
@bravokiloromeo when the Wright Brothers flew their first airplane, jet engines didn't exist, but they didn't sit around and go "hey, this thing will barely glide! We might as well say f*** it!"
@illuminerdi
Exactly. And as I recall the first flight of the Wright brothers lasted mere seconds and only got a few feet off the ground. 20 years later aircraft were everywhere. They will scale this up and keep going. And / or others will. I find it very encouraging - a plane that require no fuel! Kudos!
@bravokiloromeo
Well, this kind of thing is research into getting more out of less.
How to make craft lighter, with more lift and less drag.
How to maximise the efficiency of engines with only small energy sources.
All good research, even for more conventional aircraft.
@SHoe
And if it's only an aircraft hybrid that comes out of this in 20 years time, it's still a 100% win.
I give it a week before an oil company buys them out and demolishes the program.
Good luck with that. The family Piccard is not known for giving up their pioneering dreams like that.
Imagine 100 planes like this one in train like connection with cables. They combined can pull the passenger flying wagon on the back.
@panonskins
Imagine in 2013, a sleigh is being pulled by 8 or 12 of this with tips painted in red going around the globe on Christmas eve
holy fuck this is news.
2013? Damn, they're one year too late :/ bahahahahahahaha
THE KING IS COMING TO THE MIAMI HEAT!!!
@BrookLynnsFinest
Elvis?
@BrookLynnsFinest
Arthur, King of the Britons?
@BrookLynnsFinest Maker of fine burgers?
@BrookLynnsFinest We are talking about the airplane here. When LeBron James becomes a cyborg (or he probably is one already) then he'll get his Engadget post.
Anyone else think the title is really confusing? It was a 24 hour flight-- but it was 26-- WHERE DID THOSE TWO HOURS GO???
@jacres
A 24 hour test flight doesn't allways mean exactly 24 houres it sometime means a DAY and also the area around payerne is all hills and he was flying at a low altitude so he must have flown around the hills
@windows4ever - No no, that's not it, this thing generated so much electricity it created a wormhole in-flight and jumped 2 hours into the future, clearly!
Shame it didn't fly over basel :-(
And why couldn't have flown next week 'cause im going camping next to the neuenburgersee next week.
So it will take them 2 years to add GPS and a simple route to fly around the globe??
If the plane keeps flying West, it will go around the globe in no time. Thus more time for the plane to be in the Sun.
@KGB I'm sure everyone is glad you're not involved with the project. Or anything that involves navigation and aeronatutics in general...
@KGB
If it can maintain more than 165mph, you're correct.
@Ken J
Unfortunately, it can achieve a top speed of around 44mph.which would take close to 3days 19hrs to travel the 3959mi circumference. They can of course cheat a bit and not circumnavigate the equator, but I don't know how far north qualifies as circumnavigation.
@Ken J
LOL my bad 3959 is the radius! Circumference is 24875mi multiply all my numbers by 6.28 :p
1036mi/hr to circumnevigate in 24hr
565.3hr (23.5 days) to do it at 44mi/hr
"Here's to the finest crew in Starfleet"
@JeremyBenthem
Engage!
Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U-S-S Enterprise!
Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U-S-S Enterprise!
Make it so!
Make it so!
@CptnDriveThru http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf9oD_xl8mI&feature=related
26 hours and it couldnt go around the globe? thats #fail
@Ops
It couldn't go supersonic like an f17 you know?
I've always said that flying is for droids.
@Obi Wan Kenobi
No. Those aren't the droids you're looking for.
Change the title, 26 hours late after 24 hours of flight implies it was in the air for 50 hours ... it was 2 hours late ... c'mon ... 'aint you guys supposed to be in command of the English language?
@popol I read it right... the way they wrote the sentence implies that it was intended to be a 24 hour flight, it left the ground and then "26 hours later" arrives