[maddy42]

The solar airplane folks have landed in Phoenix and my friend has got a slot to visit them. Follow them on Twitter and really hats off for their effort. Do you guys see it touching the main stream folk in the future?

Maddy

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by maddy42

The solar airplane folks have landed in Phoenix and my friend has got a slot to visit them. Follow them on Twitter and really hats off for their effort. Do you guys see it touching the main stream folk in the future?

It’s always difficult to predict, but i’m sure solar energy will find some place in aviation, be it drones or otherwise.

Aviation is actually a pretty slow moving industry in terms of innovation. Its mainly because of very complicated, costly and lengthy certification processes.

But it’s definitely happening. I read several (general) aviation magazines. I can honestly say that until about 2-3 years ago, never did you see any mention of electrical driven aircraft. Now there is an article about electrical aircraft nearly every month in every main stream magazine. Quite a bit of it is what is know in aviation circles as experimental (Under the FAA rules that exempts you from a bunch of rules and regulations), but there are now electrical equivalent to the old trusted Cessna 152/172 coming to market. BTW mostly battery powered they are.

So I would say its just a matter of time. How big an impact solar energy will have on aviation propulsion is difficult to predict. I would think it will always be supplementary to battery and or other energy sources.

Jeroen

[maddy42]

Why flying is expensive. This video will explain it. And fuel is not the answer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Oe8T3AvydU

Maddy