http://www.thev Battery damage grounds Solar Impulse 2 after record-breaking flight By Dante D'Orazio July 11, 2015
[image https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cZLkelktycB2pBCvP3M20SUHfrM=/0x0:6000x4000/640x427/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46715202/2014_08_28_8thFlight_revillard_55.0.0.jpg (Solar Impulse 2) ] Solar Impulse 2 is taking an breather after its record-breaking 117-hour, 52-minute flight from Japan to Hawaii last week that crushed the record for longest solo flight. The solar-powered aircraft sustained major damage to its batteries during the latest leg of its round-the-world voyage, according to a press release, and it will be two to three weeks before the aircraft flies again. Crews monitoring the aircraft during its flight from Nagoya to Hawaii noticed the overheating batteries during the plane's first ascent of the five-day journey. Unfortunately, the team was unable to reduce temperatures due to the cyclic nature of Solar Impulse's flights. Every day, the aircraft ascends to 28,000 feet and gathers energy before gliding back down towards Earth at night. The team believes that the overheating was due to excess insulation in the battery compartment. ""Damage to certain parts of the batteries is irreversible."" In a press release, the team says that "the damage to certain parts of the batteries is irreversible," adding that they'll need to obtain new parts and perform repairs that "will take several weeks to work through." Thankfully, alongside the repairs, engineers will be looking at how to better design the battery compartment to prevent a similar issue from occurring in the future during long flights. Solar Impulse co-founder and CEO André Borschberg piloted the plane on the record-breaking leg, but he won't be flying once the aircraft is back in action. His partner in this journey, Bertrand Piccard, will take the reins for the next flight, which is set to land in Phoenix, Arizona. After that, Solar Impulse will take a couple more stops in the US before hopping across the Atlantic and finally returning to Abu Dhabi, where this round-the-world trip first started in March. [© 2015 Vox Media] ... http://gizmodo.com/solar-impulse-fried-its-batteries-on-historic-five-day-1717220101 Solar Impulse Fried its Batteries on Historic Five Day Flight Maddie Stone 7/11/15 [image http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Z0Efa0CQ--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/1336193513331054407.jpg ] ... http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33494123 Solar Impulse grounded for 2-3 weeks By Jonathan Amos [image http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/8F53/production/_84219663_028011105.jpg ] http://www.thedailystar.net/science/solar-impulse-plane-closes-hawaii-landing-107053 Solar Impulse plane closes in on Hawaii landing July 03, 2015 / BBC Online [image / BBC http://www.thedailystar.net/sites/default/files/styles/big_4/public/feature/images/solar.jpg Andre Borschberg has had to deal with quite a bit of turbulence in his lightweight plane http://www.thedailystar.net/sites/default/files/styles/big_4/public/news/images/solar_2.jpg The top surfaces of the aeroplane are covered in solar cells ] Andre Borschberg is into the final hours of his historic solar-powered flight across the Pacific. The Swiss adventurer is due to land at Kalaeloa, Hawaii, around 06:00 local time (1600 GMT; 17:00 BST) after an epic five-day trip from Japan. His Solar Impulse aeroplane has covered 8,000km this week, in what was always going to be the toughest leg in the quest to fly around the world. Wind conditions will determine the precise moment Borschberg puts down. His very lightweight vehicle, with its huge, 72m wingspan, needs calm air. And the pilot will be instructed to circle in front of Kalaeloa airport until meteorologists give him the all clear. There to meet Borschberg on the ground will be his partner on the Solar Impulse project, Bertrand Piccard. The pair have shared the flying duties in the single-seater plane's global effort, which began in Abu Dhabi, UAE, back in March. It is Piccard who will fly the next leg from Kalaeloa to Phoenix, Arizona. That is not quite as far as the current stint, but it still likely to take four days and nights. From Phoenix, Solar Impulse will head for New York and an Atlantic crossing that would eventually see the plane return to Abu Dhabi. But the Solar Impulse ground crew will need a few days first in Kalaeloa to check over the aircraft, before meteorologists once again take on the tricky task of finding a flight window. Getting from China to Hawaii proved more problematic than anyone could have imagined. The project was stuck in Nanjing for five weeks before the first attempt to cross the ocean was made. This had to be aborted because of a sudden deterioration in the weather, and the plane was diverted to Nagoya. One further attempt was then abandoned moments from take-off, before Solar Impulse finally got a clear run out of Japan on Monday. Even so, Borschberg had to cross two cold fronts and endure some uncomfortable turbulence. That bumpiness disrupted his already truncated sleep opportunities. Over the course of the past week, the pilot has been permitted only 20-minute catnaps. The journey from Nagoya to Kalaeloa smashes the absolute distance and duration world records for manned solar-powered aeroplanes - records that Solar Impulse itself set on earlier flights. In terms of general aviation, the big record broken on this flight is the 2006 mark established by the American adventurer Steve Fossett for the longest duration solo flight in an un-refuelled plane. Fossett set this record in a jet-powered plane, the Virgin GlobalFlyer. Borschberg bettered it when he went through 76 hours in the air. And if he lands at the expected time of 06:00, he will raise the mark still further to 118 hours. Borschberg and Piccard have used the various stopovers on their round-the-world journey to carry a campaigning message to local people on the topic of clean technologies. Their Solar Impulse plane is not intended to be a vision of the future of aviation. Rather, it is supposed to be a demonstration of the current capabilities of solar power in general. The vehicle is covered in 17,000 photovoltaic cells. These either power the vehicle's electric motors directly, or charge its lithium-ion batteries, which sustain the plane during the night hours. LEG 1: 9 March. Abu Dhabi (UAE) to Muscat (Oman) - 772km; in 13 hours and 1 minute LEG 2: 10 March. Muscat (Oman) to Ahmedabad (India) - 1,593km; in 15 hours and 20 minutes LEG 3: 18 March. Ahmedabad (India) to Varanasi (India) - 1,170km; in 13 hours and 15 minutes LEG 4: 18 March. Varanasi (India) to Mandalay (Myanmar) - 1,536km; in 13 hours and 29 minutes LEG 5: 29 March. Mandalay (Myanmar) to Chongqing (China) - 1,450km; in 20 hours and 29 minutes LEG 6: 21 April. Chongqing (China) to Nanjing (China) - 1,241km; in 17 hours and 22 minutes LEG 7: 30 May. Nanjing (China) to Nagoya (Japan) - 2,852km; in 44 hours and 9 minutes Leg 8: 28 June. Nagoya (Japan) to Kalaeloa, Hawaii (USA) - 8,000km; 118 hours (estimated) [© thedailystar.net] For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Solar-Impulse2-eplane-jp-HI-record-breaking-flight-pack-damage-tp4676733.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
