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Sol'r Power: new blimp preps for maiden voyage
A group of French engineering students want to see what their solar blimp — the helium-filled, solar-panel-studded Sol'r — can do. They have their eye on the English Channel for their first big test run, though the team has taken the one-seater craft into the air before and do know of its air-worthiness.
Seriously though, I find that I hate how much I love blimps (and their hard-bodied cousins, zeppelins). On the one hand, a craft such as the Sol'r is a zero-emissions solution for travel, and its shape makes it ideal to be covered with sun-drinking panels. On the other hand, it's low, sub-25-mile-per-hour speed in ideal conditions makes it the snail of air travel, it's highly susceptible to weather, and the craft don't exactly have the best track record.
Whether or not blimps and zepp's will ever recapture a place in flight is anyone's guess, though here's a fond good luck to the Sol'r crew in any case.
Project Sol'r, via Popular Mechanics, via Wired
By RGKahn at 12:05 AM ON 07/14/09
"and the craft don't exactly have the best track record." What craft are you referring to? Zeppelins are dirigibles that were manufactured by the Zeppelin company of Germany before the two World Wars. They are again being made in Germany by it modern day namesake. Blimps, by contrast, have been manufactured here in the U.S.A. for over 70 years by the Goodyear company and others with a perfect safety record. I wish the fixed wing portion of the aircraft manufacturing industry had such a good record. Remember, one of the first to be killed in an aircraft accident was Lt. Selfridge who was with Orville Wright, who suffered a broken leg.
By Mikee at 10:34 AM ON 07/14/09
I have to agree with RGKahn. Hydrogen filled dirigibles have proven themselves to be troubled children. Helium filled blimps have never had a problem.
Helium is an inert gas, and will actually put out a fire before it will help a fire burn.
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Mikee:
I have to agree with RGKahn. Hydrogen filled dirigibles have proven themselves to be troubled children. Helium fi...More »