Solar Impulse takes off on delayed Pacific flight

Godspeed!

will get stuck again..., hope i am wrong.

Hopefully the next solar Impulse will come with sea skimming

Bon voyage!

Revolutionary inventions often come from America and European countries.

Best wishes.

Why is the pilot not allowed to pedal and generate extra, possibly vital, energy? Surely it would be better than just yoga for health? In the interests of trying to prove that the plane can fly on solar power alone, they are willing to lose the craft? Or is there some other reason?

@nandakandamanda

the weight of a cranked dynamo would be too much to make it worthwhile.

Kobewhite bar owner. I dont think its like that. Its just that he wont make so much power. Just look at the size of that plane.

The amount of power a human can sustain is limited to perhaps 150 Watt/hours for someone who is reasonably fit. That may be enough to power the auxilliary systems, but most definitely not the motors. Not only that, can you imagine pedalling for 5 continuous days? It would take industrial amounts of talcum powder to prevent sensitive parts from being chafed raw.

I foubd a website that explains about solarimpulse. < http://www.wired.com/2013/04/solar-planes-are-cool-but-theyre-not-the-future-of-flight/>

@nandakandamanda

Distance is too great from Japan to Hawaii to pedal, non stop, for 120 hours! It might be useful to help charge the batteries but the overall speed requirements and consumption while in operation isn't going to do much. More useful to save weight. You're thinking of the one in Greece that flew by pedal. It went ~35 kph (22mph)!

Currently as of this post Impulse 2 is travelling at 28 knots (51.856 kph / 32 mph). You can watch the real time data of the controls here http://tinyurl.com/pneh2kp

Aviation is ready for a new battery. That's the only thing left to improve on if we want electric flight to be useful. Otherwise bring back the (helium) blimps!

Yes its got a huge wing span (the same as a commercial liner but its weight is 1600kg compared to 442,253 kg

Trust me its basically a glider with solar panels even the pilot is tiny.

Thank you all for your reasoned replies.

A cranked dynamo might be heavy, agreed, but I have a very small cranked flashlight/torch which seems to be mostly plastic inside, extremely light in the hand, and which stores the charge.

No, I was not suggesting that he should pedal all the time, but that he should have the option of a few hours a day, good for him, and a useful back-up feed into the batteries for when the gauge approaches 'zero'. Is not something better than nothing? In Formula E when you reach zero you have to jump out and change cars.

figure out the amps you get from it then look at the power consumption of the motors Four brushless, sensorless motors, each generating 17.4 hp (13.5 k), mounted below the wings, and fitted with a reduction gear limiting the rotation speed of a 4 m diameter, two-bladed propeller to 525 rev / min. The entire system is 94% efficient, setting a record for energy efficiency.

Your point is like trying to power a bike with 20 dynamos on each wheel.

Have a read http://info.solarimpulse.com/en/our-adventure/building-a-solar-airplane/#.VZFRE-ePpKo

Revolutionary inventions often come from America and European countries. which is also why the majority of Nobel prizes come form those areas, creative thinking need to be taught at an early age or you risk becoming another sheeple.

They should try to make one with helium i side the wings. :D

helium inside the wings, please read the history of the Zepplin, ur comment is a short cut to thinking.