Solar planes are not the future of flight
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Solar planes are not the future of flight
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#2Passenger aircraft is a no, but a stable UAV platform is a possibility.
What happened to the idea of a stable airborne cell tower? The only response I can find is "unlikely" or "unreliable" without any data.
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#3Why not fill the wings with helium or other lighter than air solid. ~Lift increases by the cube, weight by the square.
I'm waiting for someone to invent an extremely cheap lighter than air solid which can act like a battery.
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#4>The plane isn’t going to run out of juice, unless it meets some clouds or some serious tailwind.
Why would a tailwind matter? That would cause it to go faster relative to the ground, but it shouldn't matter in terms of lift, right?
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#5>The plane isn’t going to run out of juice, unless it meets some clouds or some serious tailwind. Why would a tailwind matter? That would cause it to go faster relative to the ground, but it shouldn't matter in terms of lift, right?
An airfoil (wing) creates lift when air flows from the leading edge to the trailing edge, and the speed of this airflow is one of the factors which determine how much lift is generated. A strong tailwind will interrupt the airflow, induce turbulence and decrease lift. Thus, an airfoil moving into a headwind will generate greater lift than one moving through a tailwind.
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#6Why not fill the wings with helium or other lighter than air solid. ~Lift increases by the cube, weight by the square. I'm waiting for someone to invent an extremely cheap lighter than air solid which can act like a battery.
> Lighter than air solid
Is this even possible at normal temperature? I can't imagine this at 1 atm. and room temperature...
after some googl-ing:
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#7Something really bugs me about this. Unless I'm mistaken, Bernoulli's principle doesn't say anything about throwing air down ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoullis_principle#Applicatio...
http://warp.povusers.org/grrr/airfoilmyth.html
What am I missing here?
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#8Just to understand the terminology better, if we invent more energy dense, lighter batteries in the future that can be charged via solar power, will the planes powered by them still be considered solar powered?
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#9Why not fill the wings with helium or other lighter than air solid. ~Lift increases by the cube, weight by the square. I'm waiting for someone to invent an extremely cheap lighter than air solid which can act like a battery.
The amount of lift you would get from such a small amount of helium would be practically negligible compared to the weight of the aircraft. Lighter-than-air craft require an enormous volume of helium/hydrogen - due to the cross-section of such a craft, the speed of travel is severely limited by drag. Basically, an aircraft uses wings OR lighter-than-air gas - it can't use both.
Re: Solar planes are not the future of flight
#10[deleted]