Posts Tagged ‘Aircraft’
Solar Soar Test Flight 1
This is the first test of the Solar Soar solar sail plane. The solar panels are not wired to charge the battery yet. This flight was to test the performance of the airplane. There was ballast added to the airplane to put the center of gravity at the quarter chord.
Duration : 0:10:2
Aviation Firsts: NASA’s Solar Powered Helios
http://www.WatchMojo.com video on Aviation Firsts: In 2001 NASA’s solar powered Helios aircraft first flew over Hawaii.
Duration : 0:0:16
Solar Impulse Prototype First Flight
Solar Impulse video showing the short first flight of its prototype solar-powered aircraft, HB-SIA, on Dec. 3. Weighing 1,600kg, and with a wing span of 63.4m, the aircraft flew 350m down the runway at Duebendorf, Switzerland, reaching an altitude of just 1m. The first flight was made on battery power. The aircraft’s 11,600-plus solar cells will be connected for full flight tests, to begin early in 2010 at Payerne, Switzerland. The solar cells will recharge the batteries in flight, allowing the aircraft to fly through the night. A 36-hour test flight is planned for mid-2010. The tests will validate the design of a follow-on aircraft, HB-SIB, with which the Solar Impulse team plans to attempt a round-the-world flight in 2012.
Duration : 0:1:9
Piccard unveils solar plane prototype
Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard has been dreaming for years of becoming the first pilot to circumnavigate the earth using solar energy alone. The dream has come one step nearer to reality with the unveiling of the Solar Impulse, the prototype of a plane that has taken six years to design and build. (Julie Hunt, SF1, swissinfo.ch)
Duration : 0:4:23
RC Solar Powered Plane Video UAV.Bertrand Piccard’s solar-powered adventure
http://www.ted.com For the dawn of a new decade, adventurer Bertrand Piccard offers us a challenge: Find motivation in what seems impossible. He shares his own plans to do what many say can’t be done — to fly around the world, day and night, in a solar-powered aircraft.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10
Duration : 0:20:19
First Solar-Powered Plane
CNN’s Cal Perry takes a look at the world’s first solar-powered plane and explains its loose connection to “Star Trek.”
Would you like to know more?
http://www.solarimpulse.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Piccard
Duration : 0:2:32
Yuneec Chinese Electric Airplane Info & First Flight
http://www.avweb.com
Glenn Pew reports on the Yuneec E430 Chinese Electric Airplane 54 hp two seat aircraft currently undergoing first flight and flight tests, summer 2009. Yuneec joins Randall Fishman’s ElectraFlyer-C in taking the first steps toward practical electric flight on the eve of the unveiling of Solar Impulse — an enormous aircraft that seeks to fulfill the enormous goal of 24-hour sustained solar powered flight.
http://www.glennpew.com
Duration : 0:3:38
Centurion solar-powered high-altitude aircraft in flight
Since 1980 AeroVironment, Inc. (founded in 1971 by the ultra-light airplane innovator–Dr. Paul MacCready) has been experimenting with solar-powered aircraft, often in conjunction with the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. Thus far, AeroVironment, now headquartered in Monrovia, California, has achieved several altitude records with its Solar Challenger, Pathfinder, and Pathfinder-Plus aircraft. It expects to exceed these records with the newer and larger solar-powered Centurion and its successors the Centelios and Helios vehicles, in the NASA Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program.
The Centurion is a lightweight, solar-powered, remotely piloted flying wing aircraft that is demonstrating the technology of applying solar power for long-duration, high-altitude flight. It is considered to be a prototype technology demonstrator for a future fleet of solar-powered aircraft that could stay airborne for weeks or months on scientific sampling and imaging missions or while serving as telecommunications relay platforms. Although it shares many of the design concepts of the Pathfinder, the Centurion has a wingspan of 206 feet, more than twice the 98-foot span of the original Pathfinder and 70-percent longer than the Pathfinder-Plus’ 121-foot span. At the same time, Centurion maintains the 8-foot chord (front to rear distance) of the Pathfinder wing, giving the wing an aspect ratio (length-to-chord) of 26 to 1.
Other visible changes from its predecessor include a modified wing airfoil designed for flight at extreme altitude and four underwing pods to support its landing gear and electronic systems (compared with two such pods on the Pathfinder). The flexible wing is primarily fabricated from carbon fiber, graphite epoxy composites, and kevlar. It is built in five sections, a 44-foot-long center section and middle and outer sections just over 40 feet long. All five sections have an identical thickness–12 percent of the chord, or about 11.5 inches, with no taper or sweep.
Solar arrays that will cover most of the upper wing surface will provide up to 31 kilowatts of power at high noon on a summer day to power the aircraft’s 14 electric motors, avionics, communications and other electronic systems. Centurion also has a backup lithium battery system that can provide power for between two and five hours to allow limited-duration flight after dark. Initial low-altitude test flights at Dryden in 1998 were conducted on battery power alone, prior to installation of the solar cell arrays.
Centurion flies at an airspeed of only 17 to 21 mph, or about 15 to 18 knots. Although pitch control is maintained by the use of a full-span 60-segment elevator on the trailing edge of the wing, turns and yaw control are accomplished by applying differential power — slowing down or speeding up the motors — on the outboard sections of the wing.
The video clip depicts the aircraft on the lakebed prior to and during its first low-altitude check flight under battery power on November 10, 1998.
Duration : 0:0:21
Helios, Solar Powered Flying Wing Aircraft
NASA Sci Files segment exploring the new solar powered, flying wing aircraft called Helios.
Duration : 0:2:36