Idea man Spin Williams loves the Solar Impulse, the plane that flew for 26 hours this week only using energy from the sun.
I know there’s been coverage of this story, but I don’t think people truly get the importance of what has happened. Since it began, the duration of any single manned flight has been limited by the amount of fuel we can put in the plane. Now, with the realization that we can collect solar energy during a daytime flight, store that energy in batteries and then continue to fly through the night until the sun re-appears to charge our batteries again, all that changes!
Just like a meeting that never ends, the Solar Impulse offers us the promise of a flight that never ends. And ask anybody who uses airplanes to get anywhere – they all have a dream of someday stepping aboard a flight that never ends!
Ha ha. I’m kidding. What I meant to say is this: Ask anybody who uses airplanes to get anywhere. They all feel like they’ve already been on a flight that never ends. So duration isn’t an issue.
Official observers and popular predictors say we won’t have solar powered commercial flights anytime soon, but at the meeting that never ends, we call that kind of talk self-limiting small-think! The Solar Impulse could re-shape the way the aviation industry works, helping us finally achieve the goal of low cost air travel by eliminating the need for jet fuel.
Now each major airline can put a sun powered fleet aloft and keep it there perpetually! No more stressful landings and take-offs – all you’ll have to do is check the schedule to see when the next flight is coming by! Going from L.A. to New York will be like stepping on the moving walkway at the airport.
Cynics will say there’s in insurmountable problem with getting people on and off a plane that never stops moving, but that defeatist attitude will only limit us. Naysayers forget that a commercial jet goes 600 miles per hour, but the average speed of the Solar Impulse is about 43.5 mph. This is a great advantage. College kids regularly stand up and wave their shirts over their heads in convertibles going twice that speed.
I’m not saying that grabbing on to a rescue basket and screaming like a maniac while your friend Howie steers dad’s Miata down the runway is the most practical way to board a perpetually airborne plane, but for some travelers this scenario is not entirely out of the question. For deplaning those in daredevil class, a slow flying aircraft could make use of strategically placed hay bales.
All I’m saying is that there are solutions out there if we can only free our minds to embrace all the possibilities. So here’s to the Solar Impulse! She is leading the way to a glorious future!
Make a prediction about the future of air travel.
Trail Baboon 
Good morning all! Given that I still don’t really understand how planes stay in the air, I can only offer a favorite Gary Larson laugher: the flight attendant tells a passenger the flight is overbooked but there’s a copilot seat available. He says “Uh, ok.” In the cockpit he turns to the other guy and asks, “Are you the pilot?” The other guy responds, “Heck no, I’m a chiropractor.”
🙂
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I think these planes will form the core of Icarus Airlines.
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Icarus Air. Good idea Beth-Ann.
What’s their slogan?
– Ride the Wide Wax Wings!
– Get Close To Adventure!
– Not Your Dad’s Airline!
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Dale, Great options! How about these too?
Hot travel!
Icarus -the Classic Airline
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Gugig Airlines
An Hydragenia as the logo
With flowerbeds painted across the side of every plane
“Jessie’s Jumbo Jets”
“Great Getaways with Gugig”
Special Flights to Mosocow
No inflight movies but a digital library
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A Melting Adventure!!
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Rise and Shine Babooners:
I’m so focused this a.m. on land travel from Mpls to DesMoines today, then flower arranging over the weekend for this wedding, that I have no opinion on air travel’s future. But Beth-Ann, I love the name of your airline! Very creative. Dale, it has been fun to meet our old friends this week–good to have Spin trekking our trail today and Bud Buck earlier this week. When I heard you were leaving RH I did not expect to have these people populate my world anymore. Now I feel more secure!
Happy Trails all. I’ll tune in this weekend if I have time.
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Jacque, Happy Wedding
I followed your sister’s links to her website and sent it along to some of the parents I know who are advocating for kids with special needs. Thanks for the connection.
Remember to enjoy yourself in the midst of the busy wedding!
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If you are the person with a special needs child, she is the woman for you! Her son lives here now and is healthy. She is also a very good speaker on this topic.
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Have a great weekend, Jacque. That piece you quoted from your sister yesterday was lovely. Let’s hope this wedding is filled with princesses.
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I have actually given a fair amount of thought to the future of airline travel. Thanks, Dale, for such an intriguing intro.
One trend that will continue will be the business of charging for amenities that used to be free. I expect travelers will be obliged to buy tokens that will operate flush toilets, so this will be a sort of pay as you go amenity for those who insist on an enclosed bathroom and flush toilet. The less fastidious will probably be encouraged to just edge out on a wing, holding on to a brace, and let fly, something like the old trains that warned you not to do your bathroom business while the train was sitting in a station.
We can expect a surcharge for flights that offer food of any sort, whether or not a passenger later decides to purchase that food. After all, the airline has to pay to stock the plane with little bags of stale peanuts and vodka, so the flying public shouldn’t expect something for nothing. Because flights will be long and tedious, airlines will try to make a profit on booze sales to customers whose most cherished dream would be a flight they later cannot remember.
When it comes to solar powered flight, the innovations I anticipate have to do with weight. Solar energy won’t let us fly with all the STUFF we have carried in the past. Luggage is heavy, so maybe solar airlines will have long leashes so the luggage can be towed along on the ground, little nylon wheels spinning madly as the plane flies over cornfields and shopping center parking lots. To further reduce passenger weight, I assume passengers will fly nude. Heavy radios (those batteries weigh a ton!) will be abandoned, but solar flights will be low and slow so messages can be shouted back and forth between the plane and the ground. The upper limit for passenger weight will probably be–oh say 130 pounds–and any fatty exceeding that limit will be asked to buy two seats (or perhaps three). This should cut down on all that whining from passengers about seats being too small.
Have a fantastic weekend, Babooners, and don’t put no beans up your noses.
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Steve, reading yesterday’s comments today, I find I am in your debt-debt-debt for providing me with both name and artist of yesterday’s song-you-can’t-get-out-of-your-head. Merci bien.
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Good Morning Flying Folk,
There has to be some way to improve on the current system of air line travel and I think Spin and his group are moving in the right direction. Some new kind of air travel is needed. The solar plane might need some modifying to make it work or there could be some other approaches. What we really need is time travel and transporters. Many things that were science fiction have come true. Why can’t we develop a transporter like those used on Star Treck?
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beam me up jim
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I don’t care much for flying and have managed to do without it for over ten years now. So I am going to side with “Bones” McCoy on this one and say that if I am not thrilled with hurling myself through space in one piece with someone else at the controls, I sure as heck am not going let somebody who may or may not be having a good day at work flip the switch and scatter my atoms across the cosmos and hopefully put them all back together the right way.
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Given the rate of acceleration of cost-cutting measures and nickel-and-dime charges for every little thing (like using the restroom on a flight), I think it’s inevitable that Walmart will get into the airline business. There flying logo will , of course, be the yellow smiley face. It won’t be painted on the plane, but rather peeled off a giant piece of paper and slapped on the tail fins or right behind the cockpit windows like a sticker one receives in school for doing good work (or showing up…or intending to show up…or telling the teacher you wanted to show up, but just couldn’t decide what to wear this morning so went back to bed).
On “Wal Air”, you won’t have to pay for extras like bathrooms, snacks, extra luggage, etc., but you will be allowed to work for Walmart DURING THE FLIGHT to pay for those amenities. The longer the flight, the more chance you have to earn a bag of peanuts or an extra bag. Of course, at minimum wage, and after deducting taxes, etc., it’ll take at least a six-hour flight to earn enough to bring that extra bag along. So I guess all the details haven’t quite worked out yet, but hey, this is Walmart.
They’ll negotiate with the plane manufacturers to shave a little metal off the fuselage thickness, drill holes in the plastic seats to reduce weight, switch to one-ply windows rather than sturdy two-ply that are in no danger of popping under pressure. Oh yes, and all pilots older than 40 will be laid off so they can switch to flight school students, some of who will actually graduate this year, because hey, flying is so boring these days, who wouldn’t appreciate a little more excitement on takeoffs and landings?
Best of all, we’ll have elderly greeters in blue vests on every flight who will wander the aisles looking slightly lost, ready to doze off at times, but make sure everyone is spoken to at least once so we feel nice and comfortable, safe and secure as we do business with our good friends at Wal Air. How can you not love a company that puts meaning into the lives of so many seniro citizens?
Chris in Owatonna
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excellent chris, read slapstick by kurt vonnegut
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oops, last line should have been ‘senior’ citizens.
Chris
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i love the solar plane, it obviously is not for every trip but if we get the hang of use specific vehicles instead of an suv for the hockey team and then we are forced to use it to go get a bag of ice for the cooler. if we had a 2 seater electric car at home that went 30 mph and took care of 1/2 our needs think about how much that would open up the options for other venues.
the loading line at disney has you step onto a moving vehicle to see the haunted house among others. i can see doing a gradual speed up until you are on a track going at 40 mph that would allow you to step onto a 40 mph plane as it whisks you off to kc or omaha. 400 miles would take 8 hours so you wouldnt want to try nyc at 24 hours. however if you did the luggage could beat you to the terminal so that wouldn’t be the issue it is on the plane.
this is a big deal and if the only expense in going anywhere was to pay for a hanger and a electric plug i think you would have about a 40,000% increas in personal aircraft. add motor scooters golf cart looking electric cars and all the extensions of this one we get the hang of a vehicle mentality that ties in with reality instead of the 59 cadalac mentality we have spread across the planet. toyota does an efficient job of producing a small 59 cadalac but it is still a vehicle to carry all the stuff you will ever need instead of making it a wallet a coke and a briefcase which is all you need 90% of the time.
sky r us airlinesflies for cheap going downwind. a little more expensive going against the wind.
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Right behind you on that, tim. I’m actually thinking that when my current dad-mobile gives out (or gas hits $4/gal. again, whichever comes first), I will be getting a SmartCar. Who says we have to OWN everything? My thought is that when I need to do a road trip or haul a lot of something, there are a lot of rental businesses that I can access (and yes, outstaters, I realize this is a city option, although I have rented cars from dealerships in pretty small towns before-don’t know if that is still done).
I only wish the Smart Cars didn’t look so geeky-if only they could make one that looks like a miniature red Mustang convertible—
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You sound like a candidate for an HourCar membership. A Prius doesn’t look much like a Mustang convertible, but they do have red ones.
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Very nicely thought out, Chris. I do think that Wal Air would only fly with Chinese pilots, for WalMart just doesn’t like to pay Americans the exorbitant rates they demand. Would the Chinese pilots have any English? That might fall in the category of another amenity the passengers would pay extra to get.
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To off set the impact of air travel on global warming, people who want to fly could be required to offer proof that they have done something to that would help reverse global warming such as planting some trees or putting up solar panels. Do you think that can be done? Probably not. Maybe we could reduce global warming by using hot air ballons for air travel.
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greetings, all–
sorry i missed this week’s good topics!
i’ve personally seen dolphins blowing bubble rings and playing with them–and it seemed to be more for the sheer fun of it than anything else. (i spent 2 weeks at a marine mammal lab on an Earthwatch research/vacation; the dolphins had been taught sign language, and the scientists were doing testing on dolphin intelligence…just fascinating)
nice to hear from the bear up north, too! yeah, i can imagine getting transported somewhere–i kind of like this solar plane thing, too! now that’s a plane i’d like to learn to fly–not quite so fast! i like the design of it, too, silver and sleek.
but i’m no good at predicting the future–although i will go so far as to predict that i will probably buy a new blouse today and may well go swimming tomorrow. but that’s as far as i go.
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I predict Kay will buy a sleeveless blouse that showcases her toned arms.
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I would like to see an amalgam of air and train travel-what about flying trains? Just think, you could walk around and have you own private compartment, dine in style, and get to your destination superfast. Perhaps a flying train wouldn’t have to go as high as jets, so it would be somewhat safer,
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oh, yes, a question:
what’s the status of the idea of a gathering, to celebrate Dale and meet and greet and eat and drink and laugh….?
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Kay — My impression is that we have lost momentum. The vote was for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon meeting, I think, and people were enthusiastic about Minehaha Falls Park as a summer setting. Votes were really split on the book. I wondered if we should just meet and pick a book at the meeting. The Park is sort of in my back yard. I’d be willing to do something a bit special for the meeting, like preparing a salad we all could eat.
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Steve, I am not all that far from Minnehaha Park either–and would be happy also to do something to make a gathering merry. i don’t know re the book you are referring to….we don’t have to have homework do we? (i’m feeling bubba-ish)
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Sherrilee was going to wait till the “dust settled” and then check in with Dale and plan something (a couple of us said we could help too), and she’s out of town this week.
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Barbara — Thanks. I have not checked the threads on that other blog. I am still willing to help too, once we get going.
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Now that I think about it, I believe hot air ballons for air travel might really be a good idea. In fact I think Spin generates a lot of hot air and there are many other sources. I haven’t heard if all the hot being generated by Spin and from all kinds of people and places is having a big impact on global warming. I would think that by capturing all that hot air and using it in air travel, there could a considerable reduction global warming.
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Jim’ s comment about global warming and planting trees got me thinking. What if there was greenery planted on those same wings?
Now hear me out–
With the green plants absorbing sunlight and energy I’m sure we could be harvesting the energy from the roots — after the plant has used it– to power the airplane, and still be absorbing CO2, right? And as the plants / tree’s grew, they would actually be pulling the airplane HIGHER into the air so therefore less energy would be required to keep it flying! You’d want fast growing plants like zucchini or corn stalks….
Soon there would be whole flying fields! And think where *that* leads!!
Oooooooo…..
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I do, I do! it leads to flying pastures with methane converters for auxillary power!
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Ben, I think we could combine planting on the air crafts with using hot air collected in ballons to keep the air crafts up in the air. Those planting might not hold up the air crafts like you think, but there should be plenty of hot air to fill balloons to hold them up.
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I used to make a part of almost every workshop or presentation I did with educators be on the future. I have long studied the success of predictions and what are current predictions. Not as up to speed today as I used to be. The worst predictions made are about technological developments and their impact. To quote myself, “Technology has a less dramatic but more profound impact than we ever foresee.”
Always remember this: in the 50’s and early 60’s the most common prediction was that by 1990 our biggest problem for society was what we were going to do with all our leisure time because of all the advantages of technology would mean we were all working 30 hour weeks or less. How are you doing on managing your leisure time?
Three predictions made 20 years ago about 2010:
1) We would have everything coming into our home by one pipeline—entertainment, news, mail, Internet, personal communication, etc. We’re close, but I doubt it will ever be one medium.
2) People would do blended retirements (work part time; retired part time), delayed retirements, move in and out of retirement, etc. Came true for both money reasons and life style reasons. Amazing how little attention has been paid to this. It has had a profound but rather silent impact in many ways.
3) We would be doing less business travel because we would be using technological links. In our small company we used to travel to meet all of the time, mostly by driving between Lawrence, KS and Mankato. We now, because we merged, also have offices in St. Cloud and Shoreview. The last time anyone drove was over a year ago. Almost every day 2-6 of us meet using things like GoToMeeting. Now that we are used to it, it would almost seem odd to meet. We will do a face-to-face soon, but our travel budget is less than 5% of what it was 2 years ago. Also, John, my former partner, now co-worker, does about 35 online trainings a year and travels to train about twice a year. We have been forced to do this in large part because I have fibromyalgia and John has Parkinsons. Thus I thing we are ahead of the trend. I have two nephews who have to travel for their work to do on-sight inspections, but they are both frustrated at how slow their companies and clients are to get online for other meetings. Airlines think that they have lost lots of business travel because of this.
I predict, and my predictions are worth little, that by 2020 we will be able to do meetings in ways which come close to face-to-face meetings, such as everyone appearing on smart boards that are linked with video as will as media and instant input by each person on each other’s smart board, as GoToMeeting does now with computer screens.
One key fact often overlooked is that the price of gasoline and other fuels from 1960 to now is actually a little behind the pace of inflation. Until that changes, we will be driving and flying the ways we are used to.
My point is that real changes in air travel will be more in habits and attitudes than by technology. If you doubt that, think about how simply awful air travel is right now in every way, but we all put up with it. Thus there is no pressure to improve air travel in any way. Hopefully when the economic pressure comes on all forms of travel, the technology will be ready. But I doubt it. Somebody (who??) once said that America is an idiot at seeing things coming but a genius at very quickly adapting.
Sorry for the essay.
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Lewis B., you should check out a guy we know named Clyde, also from Mankato. 🙂
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I know that jerk. Writes bad poetry.
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You’re wrong, Lewis. That jerk writes great poetry!
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Oh, it’s an essay? I thought it was a thesis.
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No need to apologize, it was a good one, taken from the long view.
Business travel will be with us as long as expense accounts can be passed along to customers. It is just too juicy a plum.
Spin’s phrase “self-defeating small-think” has had me chewing today. When did negativism first become an entity to be dealt with? If it is just part of the human condition, why has this negative trait not been bred out of the species? On the contrary, it seems to be growing by leaps and bounds.
Wasn’t there a time when something could honestly be considered a bad situation, and not just dependent on your state of optimism?
Seems like there was a lot more optimism and innovation when that came naturally.
Hope that doesn’t sound too crabby-just worked too many places with corporate up-speak (and yes, that would be in the theatre).
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That plane looks like a mutant dragonfly. What’s the advantage to flying at 78 mph when you could get where you’re going in about the same amount of time and for a lot less $ by hitchhiking?
I predict air travel in the future will utilize the Wonkavator. It goes… “sideways and slantways and longways and backways and frontways and squareways and any other ways that you can think of…”
“You should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about.” Willy Wonka
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My personal favorite is train travel… Renee – isn’t there a flying train somewhere in kid’s literature?
I know trains take longer, but now that people can bring their laptops and work WHILE they travel, that might not be so much of an issue. And everything else – the leg room, the food available, the scenery, and being able to get up and move about – make it so enjoyable. If we could just get those track back that were removed…
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I wish that I could take the train to the Turtle Mountains, since I have to drive back to the International Music Camp tomorrow and fetch our daughter and a Candaian friend of hers home. Its a 5 hour drive one way, and I’m just not as fond of long trips as I used to be. On the way there last Sunday I saw the largest flax field I have ever seen, and it was in bloom. It was gorgeous. The canola was also in bloom, and very yellow. Have a great weekend, fellow congress members. I will be busy next week sightseeing with our daughter and her friend, and then will drive to Grand Forks to return her friend to her mother, with stops in Fargo to see our son and his wife and thier new apartment, and a stop at the luthier to have the violin checked over before the Suzuki Institute in Kitchener-Waterloo, ON.
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Makes me think some ambitious Swede should plant a flax and canola field like the Swedish flag.
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That would be wonderful! If it was planted on hilly, rolling land it would look like the flag was waving.
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Uffda!
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