Solar Impulse lands in Hawaii!

[kwilcox]

Way to go!

http://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-8-from-Nagoya-to-Hawaii

[solar pete]

Way to go!

http://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-8-from-Nagoya-to-Hawaii

Cool.

[SunEagle]

That was a great accomplishment in solar technology flight.

Too bad it took almost 5 days to get from Japan to Hawaii.

Maybe a boat would have been faster.

[bridaus]

But not a solar boat... unless you are thinking sailboat, which is a kind of solar boat. Hmm, there could be some kind of lesson in here, if only it would hit me over the head.

That was a great accomplishment in solar technology flight.

Too bad it took almost 5 days to get from Japan to Hawaii.

Maybe a boat would have been faster.

[Shockah]

That was a great accomplishment in solar technology flight.

Too bad it took almost 5 days to get from Japan to Hawaii.

Maybe a boat would have been faster.

A remarkable accomplishment, nonetheless.... it would be difficult for one man to drive an automobile 5100 miles in 5 days.

I wish I was available to witness the landing in person.

[SunEagle]

A remarkable accomplishment, nonetheless.... it would be difficult for one man to drive an automobile 5100 miles in 5 days.

I wish I was available to witness the landing in person.

The long distant run for the Impulse while remarkable is still not much of an accomplishment due to the pilots contribution. That plane runs almost autonomous. The man is there in case an issue comes up as well as being ballast.

Actually I am more interested in some of the Electric personal aircraft being tested in England. One is made by Airbus called the E-Fan and the other was called the Cri-Cri.

While neither of those could set distance records like the Impulse, IMO both have a better chance of becoming a viable product used by the public.

[Shockah]

Seen on the local news where the Impulse is grounded here in Hawaii,,, due to the batteries being overheated on that last leg.

Click the image for article.

[Sunny Solar]

We tend to dismiss events such as this as impractical. And at the moment thats true. BUT look at the almost useless Wright brothers plane in 1903 it flew only about the length of a wing of a modern commercial jet and only carried a pilot.. In 20 yrs time who knows what can be achieved. 20 years on from the Wright bros first attempt planes became very successful..

[SunEagle]

We tend to dismiss events such as this as impractical. And at the moment thats true. BUT look at the almost useless Wright brothers plane in 1903 it flew only about the length of a wing of a modern commercial jet and only carried a pilot.. In 20 yrs time who knows what can be achieved. 20 years on from the Wright bros first attempt planes became very successful..

I agree the flight(s) by the Impulse is historic making and should be celebrated.

Maybe I am being a little too stuffy when it comes to breakthroughs in technology. Especially when personal "jet packs" were introduced back in the 60's and still have not been made into a useful product.

Flying with solar energy will happen but energy storage technology needs to make a big leap to the next level before we see commercial airlines using the sun as their main energy source.