Solar Impulse Completes First Intercontinental Solar Flight 56
An anonymous reader writes "Slashdotters may remember the Solar Impulse — the world's first 100% solar-powered airplane — from last year when it made its public debut. Today the airplane made news again as it successfully completed the world's first solar-powered intercontinental flight — a pivotal step that paves the way for the plane's first trip around the world in 2014."
Re:Not really that spectacular... (Score:5, Insightful)
515 miles isn't impressive for a solar powered flight? Maybe I am naive, but this seems like quite an accomplishment to me. Perhaps you would like to pull something out of your resume that is more impressive?
At about 25 miles/hour (Score:4, Insightful)
piloted their Solar Impulse airplane over 515 miles to their destination in Rabat, Morocco... Furthermore, after almost 20 hours of flight
The First Always Kinda Sucks, Give It A Break (Score:5, Insightful)
The first car sucked. The first bicycle sucked. It's a goddamn proof of concept, people. Stop shit-talking it, this is how progress is made.
Cool but... (Score:2, Insightful)
So all the people seeing this as progress, realize that in 30+ years solar panels have not improved significantly enough to be able to generate the kind of power required to move 2 people, let alone 100 or 300.
This is a nice novelty, but does not harken a new era in solar power flight until there is some fundamental improvements in solar power technology.