Bertrand Piccard today finished the first around-the-world flight with a solar-electric airplane, the Solar Impulse 2 (a.k.a. HB-SIB). That’s over 40,000 kilometers flown, leaving Abu Dhabi in March 2015 and returning to their starting point today, July 25, 2016. This flight, as did several other Solar Impulse flights, demonstrated this…
History is being made this weekend as Bertrand Piccard is piloting the Solar Impulse solar-powered airplane from Cairo to Abu Dhabi. In March 2015 the Solar Impulse set out from Abu Dhabi, and the team has been flying the airplane (in legs) around the world since. It was to have…
In March 2015, the Solar Impulse took off from Abu Dhabi on a journey to fly around the world while using zero fuel. As a solar powered electric airplane, the Solar Impulse flies in the face of conventional wisdom, in that it flies long distances without burning liquid fuel. It…
On Friday, the Solar Impulse 2 solar-electric airplane landed at JFK Airport in New York, completing the North America leg of its around-the-world journey. The Solar Impulse project, conceived by adventurer Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, is seeking to fly around the world while consuming zero fuel. This “zero fuel…
Every day the trees wake up, watch the sunrise, and spread their leaves to capture the energy needed to live another day while storing excess energy away so the tree makes it through the winter. Trees, and other plants, have done this for millions of years. It is a natural…
The SolarShip is a helium-filled airplane that resembles a balloon, and is powered by electrically driven propellers whose power is collected from the Sun. This sort of aircraft doesn’t fit into any existing category, it is its own category. A picture may help: Essentially it’s a blimp/balloon, filled with helium,…
A patent for a Personal Aircraft was discovered, to have been applied for from Zee.Aero (website http://zee.aero/). (all patents from Zee.Aero) A safe, quiet, easy to control, efficient, and compact aircraft configuration is enabled through the combination of multiple vertical lift rotors, tandem wings, and forward thrust propellers. The vertical…
This morning I witnessed one of those rare events where a smart man announces to the worlds press that the impossible is possible, and then sets off on an adventure to prove it. Unfortunately I think the significance is going to be lost on most people. What I’m talking about…
At the Electric Vehicles, Land, Sea and Air conference this week in Silicon Valley, researchers and engineers met to discuss a wide range of electric vehicle applications and technologies. Electric vehicles are more than just the electrified cars we most frequently cover. This week in Silicon Valley, IdTechEx held the…
