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| Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | Views: 551 |
| Jul 07, 2010 3:13 pm | | Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Richard Weisenberger | | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ2dK_n8GE8
Great to see a plane that does not depend on fossil fuel actually flies!! We need to start to become more independent of fossil fuel. I could see this easily being upscaled with more powerful motors as in the Tesla Roadster, along with more solar charged lithium ion batteries.Private Reply to Richard Weisenberger |
| Jul 07, 2010 4:36 pm | | re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Thomas Holford | | In interesting niche technology.
An example of what happens to engineers with too much time on their hands and too much money to spend.
The U.S. economy will be dependent on "fossil fuels" for a long, long time. (Fossil fuels are probably cosmological in origin and do not really originate from "fossils".)
Only about 1-2% of U.S. energy needs come from wind or solar power.
Petroleum, natural gas, and nuclear power are wonderful energy sources, and compared to solar, are economical.
Solar power is a "boutique" energy source and basically useful for exotic or specialized applications, and toys for rich people.
The U.S. manufacturing economy is based on the consumption on massive amounts of cheap energy. Historically, that has been the U.S. competitive advantage in the world economy.
Restricting the amount of cheap energy available to the U.S. will restrict manufacturing in the U.S., turn the U.S. into a nation of "paper pushers", end American prosperty, and turn the U.S. into a third world "manual labor" economy.
And many people suspect that that is what the current U.S. regime intends to do.Private Reply to Thomas Holford |
| Jul 07, 2010 4:59 pm | | re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
George Van Valkenburg | | From Kitty Hawk to today, aviators have always sought newer and better methods. Balloons led the way, what marvels lie ahead.
Thanks for sharing this. I hope to receive more great achievements and ideas from this association.
George Van Valkenburg
www.PowerPlaques.com
Excellence and innovation go together!Private Reply to George Van Valkenburg |
| Jul 07, 2010 6:42 pm | | re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Matthew Hartstein | | While I agree that solar power will not be powering Jumbo Jetliners in the near term. We should not scoff at the inventivness that is showcased by this video. A country that fosters this kind of ingenuity will always find itself as a global economic leader and power.
thanks,
Matthew HartsteinPrivate Reply to Matthew Hartstein |
| Jul 07, 2010 8:19 pm | | re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Joseph Lynders | | " ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "
MH - "A country that fosters this kind of ingenuity will always find itself as a global economic leader and power." - MH
I suspect that it isn't doing ingenuity well that produces economic leadership and power as seems to be much of current popular thought, but, more likely it is the ability to do ordinary things well that produces economic leadership and power as the people responsible for our present economic leadership and power thought and did years ago.
Our present trend away from economic leadership and power that we are leaving to or children and grand children is greatly due to our present popular thought and our consequent failures to do the ordinary necessities of life well.
NOTE: The truth is not determined by popular vote.
Have a good IDea today,
07/07/2010 Joseph F. Lynders, FTg/MM/?Private Reply to Joseph Lynders |
| Jul 08, 2010 6:37 am | | re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Francis Dias | | Brilliant: This in 2007, just the beginning of something great in the future. I thought rather than flat place the panels - left/right - they could be perhaps placed multi-levels by a minor engineering re-draw (to reduce the
'wing' span) which I'm sure is in the minds of the creators.
Francis DiasPrivate Reply to Francis Dias |
| Jul 08, 2010 1:53 pm | | re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Richard Weisenberger | | If the Wright brothers would have listened to their critics we may not have aircraft of any type today, much less have landed on the moon in 1969. I applaud innovators who have the courage to follow through with new ideas that work, as the concepts can always be improved upon. Just look how far we have already advanced since the Kitty Hawk flier of 1903. Give the new innovators a chance.
The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders.
Foster's Law
Private Reply to Richard Weisenberger |
| Jul 08, 2010 1:55 pm | | re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar ELECTRIC aircraft | # |
Ken Hilving | | Funny how we label things.
Seems to me that the sailplane is the first solar aircraft, especially those using both thermal and ridge soaring techniques. The power source for the "gliders" and for the raptors that inspired them is solar thermal energy.
:-)Private Reply to Ken Hilving |
| Jul 08, 2010 2:01 pm | | re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Richard Weisenberger | | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oNHD41MLMk
If you think the Solar Impulse is large, take a look at the solar plane NASA developed several years earlier. It had 10 motors! I'd say we've already come a long way from that. More improvements will come with time.
The most overlooked opportunities are in the learning of and improvement in old technologies.
Richard Weisenberger
Private Reply to Richard Weisenberger |
| Jul 08, 2010 3:44 pm | | re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Thomas Holford | | > Give the new innovators a chance.
> The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders.
Foster's Law
No one is standing in the way of innovators, except perhaps government bureaucrats.
If this had been a U.S. venture, the bureaucrats would NOT be interested in how amazing or promising the technology was. They would DEMAND that the project comply with all applicable OSHA regulations, Sarbanes-Oxley filings, SEC disclosures, affirmative action policies, etc, etc, B
EFORE taking any investor money and building anything.
Also, any innovator with any brains or perspective should pay heed to the "fault finders" and understand and assess the nature of the faults they are finding.
A successful innovator is NECESSARILY going to rely on the lessons learned from the many, many unsuccessful innovators who have been down the road before.
Any "innovator" who lacks the humility to understand that other people may have looked at the problem and discovered unanticipated problems is CERTAIN to run up against his own set of unanticipated problems.
"Fault finders" are a valuable and essential part of the innovation process.
T. Holford
Private Reply to Thomas Holford |
| Jul 08, 2010 4:02 pm | | re: re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Richard Weisenberger | | With negative thinking you can only expect negative results. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Positive thinking opens you to a whole new world of discoveries and possibilities.
Richard Weisenberger
Private Reply to Richard Weisenberger |
| Jul 08, 2010 5:22 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Thomas Holford | | > With negative thinking you can only expect negative results. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Positive thinking opens you to a whole new world of discoveries and possibilities.
Richard Weisenberger
I'm positive I can invent an anti-gravity belt.
All I need is for you to believe in me and mortgage your house and give me a hundred thousand bucks.
Why are you such a negative thinker?
T. HolfordPrivate Reply to Thomas Holford |
| Jul 08, 2010 7:01 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Richard Weisenberger | | Thomas Holford's statements are typical of the problem today. Sure he may be able to convince himself, along with a few others to invest their life savings to finance a project that is doomed to failure, because the project is based on nothing more than one's philosophy and not on actual tested results. All great innovators always have a prototype, but often don't get the financing to put their project into action. This is sad.
We need to shift the paradigm to favor those that have something to show for their work over those who only say they can do something but have not done the work and have nothing to show for it. These are the kind who have nothing but negative comments about the innovator who has achieved his dream either in full or in part. For these I say put up or shut up.
The innovators who designed these solar aircraft already have working products that can be further improved by those who have enough faith to believe in their work.
What seems impossible one minute becomes, through faith, possible the next.
Norman Vincent Peale
Private Reply to Richard Weisenberger |
| Jul 08, 2010 7:34 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Thomas Holford | | > We need to shift the paradigm to favor those that have something to show for their work over those who only say they can do something but have not done the work and have nothing to show for it.
So now we need to be positive only about "those that have something to show for their work over those who only say they can do something but have not done the work and have nothing to show for it."
Adding another qualification, are we?
Would you classify someone who points out that someone else claiming to be an innovator "[has] not done the work and [has] nothing to show for it" as a "fault finder"?
Or, are you just grudgingly acknowledging that I was right all along and that there is more to innovation than just having a sunny positive attitude and dissing "fault finders"?
T. Holford
Private Reply to Thomas Holford |
| Jul 08, 2010 7:52 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Richard Weisenberger | | I can see I'm getting nowhere with you, so I'll let you have the last word and let everyone figure it out for themselves. I've dealt with your kind before. Private Reply to Richard Weisenberger |
| Jul 08, 2010 11:24 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Thomas Holford | | > I've dealt with your kind before.
How did my kind come out?Private Reply to Thomas Holford |
| Jul 09, 2010 2:56 am | | re: re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Joseph Lynders | | " ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "
One more time with variation>
JL - "It isn't doing ingenuity well that produces economic leadership and power as seems to be much of current popular thought, but, more likely it is the ability to do ordinary things well that produces economic leadership and power as the people responsible for our present economic leadership and power thought and did years ago. - JL
Actually it is the process of doing the ordinary things well that leads directly to about 80% of all innovation.
Any questions?
Have an ordinary IDea well today,
07/08/2010 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/?Private Reply to Joseph Lynders |
| Jul 09, 2010 6:24 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: Solar Impulse - First flight of the solar aircraft | # |
Joseph Lynders | | " ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "
JL - "Actually it is the process of doing the ordinary things well that leads directly to about 80% of all innovation. - JL
The most important word in the above statement is the word "well."
07/09/10 Joseph F. Lynders FTg/M/?
Private Reply to Joseph Lynders |
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