WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Flying Without Fuel 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.000 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:17.919 Jonathan Strickland. I'm then executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.920 and I love all things tech and it is time 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.720 for another classic episode of text Stuff. And you know what, 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.520 I know you guys think when I'm doing these that 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.080 I'm just sort of gliding along. So what better topic 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.720 to cover than flying without fuel? What could that mean? Well, 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.560 let's find out. We wanted to have a chance to 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:41.920 chat about something that I talked about in a recent 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.600 episode of Forward Thinking. So if you guys haven't checked 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.479 out Forward Thinking, please do. I think I think a 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:50.320 lot of tech Stuff fans would really enjoy that series. 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.559 Joe is the head writer on Forward Thinking and has 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.680 done amazing work. I have not written this episode, however, 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.920 this episode was I thought really cool. And it's a 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.240 about a solar powered aircraft. Yeah, which, when you think 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.920 about it, that on its face sounds pretty crazy, especially 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.800 if you have taken time to really look into solar 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:14.040 power and not just its advantages but it's limitations. Right right, Well, 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.200 this is obviously not the only solar powered aircraft that's 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.600 ever been created, right, it's it's probably the coolest one 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.479 ever created yet. And it is amazing that you can 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.840 take a huge, heavy thing off the ground with the 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.840 power of solar energy alone. That's just I mean, this 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:35.360 is what powers your calculator, right, not not an airplane. Yeah. Like, 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.600 for example, I have a a battery pack in my 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.560 in my backpack solar panel that it faces outward, and 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.039 in theory, you can use solar energy to recharge the 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.560 battery pack, which then you can use to recharge something 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:52.160 like a smartphone. Right, that's the basic premise of this backpack. 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.920 Here's the thing. If I want to recharge that battery 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.880 using solar power, I have to have it in the 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:02.200 sun for twelve consecutive of hours. One doesn't have to 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:04.600 be consecutive, but twelve hours to get a full charge. 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:06.760 Whereas if I were to plug it into the wall, 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.600 it's an hour and a half maybe two hours total 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:11.840 to charge it all the way up, maybe even less 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.480 than that. So it just shows that that solar power, 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:16.959 you know, getting a lot of energy from it is 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.800 a challenge. Now, obviously the solar panel that's in my 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.240 backpack is not what you would consider bleeding edge. No, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.120 it's probably not the best that our current science has 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.480 to offer. It's probably not even on the top near 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:33.200 the top line for consumer tech right now, because what's 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.359 available on the consumer side is a big drop down 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.079 from the cutting edge best of the best. So, if 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.600 you are getting a solar panel that has been designed 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.959 to be as efficient as possible, we're talking top of 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:47.800 the line. This is the stuff that NASA is going 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:52.440 to use, right, You're going to top out somewhere around 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:57.120 forty to efficiency. And what you're talking about there is 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.680 how much of the energy from the sun you're convert ing, right, 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.520 So you're you're not even starting necessarily with a very 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.280 high number. It's just how much of that solar energy 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.120 is arriving at the panels, which is obviously going to 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:13.360 be less than say the energy density of gasoline or 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:15.639 something like that, far less, far less. Yeah, so you're 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.880 getting you're getting this, You're you're losing six the energy 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.679 that hits the panel ra off the bat. Then that 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.959 ends up being converted into electricity, and it's not that 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.640 much per solar panel, Like an individual solar panel doesn't 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.320 put out that much electricity, even if it's really efficient, 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.040 it's not putting out that much. That's why whenever you 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.320 talk about really using solar panels effectively, you're talking about 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.680 lots and lots and lots of solar panels, right, they 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.080 have individual solar cells in them, and there might be 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.360 thousands of these solar cells in one solar panel farm. Yeah, 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:55.280 and if you're designing an airplane that's powered by solar panels, 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.440 one of the big questions I would wonder is where 0:03:57.480 --> 0:03:59.320 are you going to put them? I mean, when I 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.000 heard about this thing before I saw an image of it, 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.080 what I pictured in my mind was like a football 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:09.760 field sized flat surface with just the tiny little, you know, 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.560 person strapped to the bottom of it. And that's not 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.160 that far off in a way that probably wouldn't fly. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.000 But yeah, definitely sign a plane. Yeah, you've gotta have 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.640 a lot, a lot of surface area, right. You have 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:24.799 to have a lot of surface area for multiple reasons. 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:27.160 So the big reasons why you need a lot of 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.040 surface area, which in planes means a wide wingspan because 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:33.839 obviously if you made the fuselage or the body of 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:36.760 the plane the biggest part, then you have to figure 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.760 out how do you get something that bulky and heavy 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.400 into the air and have it have the vehicle maintain 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.360 enough thrust to keep it in the air, because I 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.320 mean thrust is a really important part of this too. 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.080 We we just established that solar panels aren't generating that 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:55.719 much electricity, so they can't uh push a super powerful 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.640 electric motor, and the electric motor is what's going to 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.000 be turning the propellers that are going to provide the 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.600 thrust necessary to get this plane in the air. So 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.560 you have to keep weight in mind. You can't make 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.440 it too heavy, and you still need all that service areas. 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.640 So what do you do? Well, what the folks over 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.160 at Solar Impulse, Oh, yeah, we should have said, that's 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:16.960 the one we're talking about, the solar Impulse. Solar Impulse 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.159 A two is specifically what we're talking about. That there 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.960 already has been a Solar Impulse one, which was kind 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.000 of a proof of concept vehicle that they built in 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:28.200 order to test out the different engineering approaches they were 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.600 going to take, because their goal is to have this circle, 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.839 this this solar Impulse to go all the way around 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.320 the Earth. I believe the demo of the solar Impulse 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.880 one was a transcontinental flight, right It was from the 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.000 West Coast to the United States to the east coast, 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.840 and they had several legs of the journey. They even 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:50.360 had set a record for the longest number the most 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:55.360 number of flight hours consecutively for a manned solar powered aircraft. 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.840 So if you're talking about unmanned aircraft, you end up 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.559 having really long times because you don't have a human 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.120 that you haven't Yeah, you don't need to worry about 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:07.920 a person saying goodbye to their family for two weeks 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:12.080 or whatever. Uh So for the manned record, we're talking, 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.160 uh twenty six hours, ten minutes and nineteen seconds, so 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.080 more than a full day. And if you're thinking solar 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.520 power and you're thinking, how the heck were they able 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:23.840 to fly when there was no son, we'll get to that. 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.479 Uh but yeah, So so the records already been set. 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.680 These were all proof of concepts that they were saying, well, 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.960 we need to figure out what things are required for 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:36.960 this dream of flying a solar powered aircraft all the 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.560 way around the world. What's required for that to actually 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:43.479 become a reality. So this wing span was the first thing, 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.200 and the Solar Impulse two s wingspan. It's pretty impressive. 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:51.279 We're talking about seventy two meters, uh, so that's that's 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.480 more than two and forty ft. We're talking about the uh, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:07:00.320 the width. That's greater than say a Boeing seven. But 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:05.960 unlike a Bowing, it doesn't have a huge fuselage full 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:10.720 of passengers and cargo. This has a tiny, tiny little compartment. Yeah, 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:12.800 it's essentially a little The body of the plane is 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:15.600 very small. It will allow the two the pilot and 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.160 co pilot to sit side by side, just as in 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:22.000 a traditional aircraft that's not you know, front and back 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.120 like the old World War One and World War Two 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.560 aircraft were turret. Yeah, no, I'm not gonna have to 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:32.760 worry about that. Um. But yeah, it's it's relatively small, 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.840 and it's made out of carbon fiber. So carbon fiber 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.400 has a couple of advantages, right, It's pretty strong and 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:43.160 it's really light compared to other materials. So you want 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.920 to use something that's going to be resilient so I 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:51.240 can withstand the rigors of air travel, and yeah, it 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.160 can't be too heavy. So carbon fiber is what they 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:58.600 went with. And in fact, the entire plane ends up 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.480 being something like I think it's twenty six hundred, no, sorry, 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:07.880 twenty that's around five thousand seventy pounds. That means that 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.240 there are cars on the market that are heavier than 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.520 this airplane. Is this airplane that has a wingspan wider 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:18.320 than a Bowing seven. That's pretty crazy, It's pretty crazy, 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.120 you know. I would imagine one reason that they can 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.160 use those kind of fibers is because this airplane goes 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.960 a lot slower than your standard passenger airplane, which obviously 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.480 the faster you go, the more turbulence and friction you're 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.080 gonna have to withstand, right, and uh yeah, So so 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:39.040 with a Boeing example, for example, like your average commuter 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.280 airline type of thing, you're talking about speeds in the 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:47.000 five mile per hour range. With solar impulse too, you're 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:49.720 not gonna go quite that fast. The top speed is 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:55.679 something like eight per hour, eighty eight miles per hour. Fortunately, 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.840 it does not require one point twenty one jiggabats for 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.079 it to fly, or else it would go back. How 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.920 many watts does it require? Not many at all? Really, 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.920 because again, all right, do you know how many solar 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:14.920 panels are actually on this seventeen thousand across that seventy's 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.160 because I don't know how big they are. They're not. 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.400 It's not that they're that big. Well, I mean, think 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.160 of a seventy two wide wingspan. Um, you know, you're 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.840 that's pretty huge. It's not that the panels themselves are 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.480 the solar cells. I guess I should say it's not 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.160 that the solar cells are that big, because really solar 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.400 cells is more accurate than panels. Panels are like a 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.080 collection of cells. But they're not that big. But the 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.280 fact that there're seventeen thousand of them is pretty impressive. 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.439 And they're only driving four electric motors. And like I said, 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.240 those electric motors turn electric propellers. The propellers are shaped 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.480 in such a way to help provide the thrust needed 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.880 so that you maintain the speed to uh to stay 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:54.480 in the air. Those wide wings also are able to 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.240 provide a lot of lift and stability and flight, although 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.960 it is kind of tricky. You can't take off in 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.600 windy conditions with this thing. You would imagine not because 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.200 with such a wide wing span, a little bit of 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.000 wind could easily get it to start tilting any which way. Yeah, 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.360 you have another thing I'd also imagine is that the 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.840 wider wing span allows it to stay aloft at lower speeds. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:18.679 that's another thing. And it's also not going to go 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.079 to the same sort of altitude that you would see 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.840 with like a commuter jet or something that's not gonna 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:29.720 go up to thirty feet. Well, I've been cruising without 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.120 fuel for a while now, I think I'll just keep 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.320 on going. But uh, you you folks out there, you 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:37.240 look like you could use a little bit of a break, 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:48.040 So we'll be right back. Okay, So we're doing around 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.840 the world flight. It's at eighty eight miles per hour. 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.040 That means at top speed eight eight miles per that's 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.320 not average speed, that's top speed. That would mean there's 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.920 going to be some stretches of this flight where the 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.240 airplane is gonna have to stay in the air a 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:03.839 really long time because there's no convenient way to land 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:07.920 it at night when you're over say the Ocean, right, 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:10.360 They're gonna be times where the you know, those oceans 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.000 are so wide, there's no way the plane can make 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:17.080 a trip across say the Atlantic, in a single day. 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:19.040 Not at eighty eight miles per hour. It's gonna take 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.079 multiple days and nights of flying for it to get 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:24.160 from one point to another where it can safely land. 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.040 Because they do plan on taking this trip through several 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.160 legs where the plane will be able to land. Maintenance 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.440 screws can come out and and do some repairs if necessary, 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:34.200 that kind of thing. It's not like it's going to 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.040 do a full flight around the Earth without ever touching down. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.679 They will be touching down along the way and then 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.200 taking back off and another leg of the journey. But 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.160 still when you're over the ocean, you don't have that luxury. 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:47.640 So you've got to be able to fly at night. 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.400 So that's when they switched to monkey on a stationary 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:56.400 bicycle power. You know, I recommended that. I thought it's 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.320 time has come. I mean, it's an unproven technology, I'll 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.080 grant you, but I really think we have not tapped 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.360 the potential of monkey bicycles. No. I think this is 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.319 they've got to be using some some pretty good batteries 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.200 and that has to be a very important part of 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.079 the design, right because batteries are heavy eat this airplane 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.560 needs to be light. Yeah, they used uh, they created 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.880 lithium batteries. They actually had. The engineers had to look 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:27.240 at a way to make the batteries incredibly efficient and uh, 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.280 they had to be able to charge quickly because if 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.480 you aren't getting a full charge throughout the day, then 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.840 while you're also driving those propellers, then that could become 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.760 a problem at night, right if you want to remain aloft, 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.400 that could be a serious problem. So they experiment with 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:47.080 different electrolytes um, which, of course, as we know from Idiocracy, 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.800 is the stuff that plants crave. But no, they experiment 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.400 with a lot of different chemical compositions to try and 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:57.440 make the most efficient batteries. So they went with lithium batteries. 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.360 They are kind of think of like a long, thin 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.200 almost like a film as opposed to a big battery pack. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:11.560 So it it's pretty remarkable the design, and they weigh 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.160 The batteries weigh six thirty three k or about two 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:19.520 thousand seventy seven pounds, which means that you know, the 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.560 they weigh up little bit more than a quarter of 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:28.679 the actual plane itself the batteries alone. So obviously batteries 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.760 are heavy. They're important because you have to have that 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.760 energy to tap into at night, Otherwise, once the sun 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.760 starts to go down or it gets too cloudy, you're 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.160 plane would plummet. And this isn't just a problem for planes, 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.760 I mean it's especially a problem in planes, right, This 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:46.480 is a problem for any electric vehicle, right, is is 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.880 how to deal with this massive battery that's required to 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.480 operate motors with this kind of power exactly, And it's 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.160 something that we've seen not even not just in an 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.640 electric vehicles, but electronics in general. We have a little 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:03.040 bit more to say about this interesting episode, but before 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:13.600 we get to that, let's take another quick break. The 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:18.040 processing power has increased steadily over the years. We've got 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.080 the whole observation of Moore's law where we're seeing it 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.280 practically double every two years or so, depending upon your 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:29.239 interpretation of the observation. Uh, well, then why haven't batteries 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.520 kept pace with that? You know, I'm seeing my my 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.320 mobile devices getting more powerful, but the batteries draining faster, 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:36.520 so it's not as useful to me as long. And 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:38.480 part of that is just because batteries aren't on that 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.080 accelerated path. I mean, there's only so much we can 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:43.680 do with chemistry. To be fair, they have come a 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:45.680 long way. This is also a topic we talked about 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.040 not too long ago on Forward Thinking, is how far 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.040 batteries have come. And it is kind of amazing what 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.360 we've achieved today. I mean, your standard lithium ion battery 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.560 today is kind of a wonder work, it really is. Yeah. 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.360 The fact that you're able to recharge it so that 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:05.320 the chemical the electrochemical reaction that's going on within the 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.520 battery gives off electrons. I mean, that's the whole point 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.560 of a battery. Otherwise it would be useless. Uh. And 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.920 in a in an alkaline battery, this is an irreversible 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.880 uh reaction, So the electrochemical reaction happens, electrons are given off. 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.200 As a result, you can use those electrons to do work, 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.600 thus electricity. But once it's drained, once that chemical reaction 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:29.520 has gone to a certain point, you're not generating enough 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:31.520 electrons for it to be useful anymore. You have a 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.840 dead battery. Whereas with these lithium rechargeable batteries. There are 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.360 non rechargeable types too, but with rechargeable batteries you can 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.960 reverse that reaction by essentially forcing electrons back backward through 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:45.680 that pathway. It's basically doing the whole thing backward. You're 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.040 putting work into the battery the same way you took 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.600 work out of it earlier. Yeah, So the fact that 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.880 we've managed to do that and increase the efficiency even 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.520 a little bit. Is the reason why something like the 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.920 solar Impulse too is is possible. And again we're not 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.040 going to see this actually fly around the world until 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.600 two thousand fifteen, but they've already proven that it works 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.480 with that first proof of concept vehicle that was able 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:11.520 to stay up in the air for twenty six hours. 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:13.960 The fact that it was able to charge the batteries, 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.680 fly all the way through the night and continue, Um, 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.600 you know they're fully certified to fly at night. It 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:22.720 shows that there's been a lot of work done here. 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:27.920 So we've got, uh, the energy side covered. The fact 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.320 that it's going to be using solar power to drive 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.720 the electric motors and day switched to battery at night. 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:37.360 It's going to be able to fly really for as 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.520 long as the pilot and co pid can stand. That 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.440 was my question. Yeah, what's this gonna be like for 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:48.520 the pilot incopilot? Okay, have you ever, Joe, have you 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.520 ever traveled first class? Oh? No, okay, so I've traveled 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.240 first class. Not to brag, but it's prett sweet. And 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.040 once you traveled first class, how is the champagne and 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.760 cheese select? We didn't have champagne. We had real pain, 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.960 thank you, none of this champagne you guys talk about. 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.160 Um no, but but I mean it's anyone who's traveled 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.359 first or business class and then goes back to travel coach, 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.040 the belly aching is unbearable, right, It's just this idea. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:21.400 Oh no, yeah, you can't go back, by the way. 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:25.479 I haven't traveled first or business in years, and and frankly, 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.200 I'm still amazed that planes work, so I'm happy either way. 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.480 But but there was a period shortly after that time 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:34.760 where I was able to travel first or business where 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.879 I was one of those unbearable people for that particular reason. 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.280 I'm unbearable for many other reasons now, but for that 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:45.240 particular reason where I can't believe this wonderful complaining. I know, 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:50.320 flying coach, though, would seem like an amazing luxury compared 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.439 to what the pilot and co pilot are going to 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.440 have to be able to endure to make this round 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.760 the world flight a possibility, because one of the things 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.159 they're gonna have to, like I said, stay in the 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.480 air for some of the estimates are as long as 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.600 five days and nights, or perhaps even longer for just 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.440 one leg of this journey. So for five days and nights, 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:15.439 you are in a chair in a plane and you 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.200 cannot go anywhere because there's no space. Every single ounce 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:23.480 matters on that plane, every single inch counts, so there's 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.479 no space in the back for one person to go 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.160 and and collapse while the other one flies the plane. Instead, 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.000 their chairs are going to be designed in such a 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.320 way where they can lay back into a cot form 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.760 and you can. The plane is going to have an autopilot, 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.680 so they can sit there there heading and course and 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.719 both catch them z s while they need to, and 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:50.000 then wake up and everything should be fine. Um somehow 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.040 I don't suspect that will happen. Well, I think it's 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.080 probably more likely that they're going to do their best 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.200 to take shifts. But the nice thing is that they 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.679 can set on autopilot and catch some rest if they 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.880 need to. But alright, so we've got we've got laying 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.280 down to rest, and we've got sitting up to operate. 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.720 But there's still one important human activity besides the whole 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:11.840 eating and drinking thing. They'll obviously have some food and 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.479 water up there on the plane as well. There's one 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.080 other important activity that we can't avoid. Yeah, I was 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.680 about to ask have the engineers factored into the plane's 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.760 course the fact that it might be losing a bit 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.800 of mass as it travels. So what we're alluding to 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:32.760 is where do you poop? I mean, you know, it's 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.280 one of the most popular questions on how stuff works, 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:41.000 as main site is all about space toilets um. In 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:43.960 this case, those fancy chairs I was talking about they 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.040 double up as as both chairs and cots. Well, really 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:51.960 they do triple duty because they're also lavatories. I had 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.480 to do it. Joe. Joe is rolling his eyes, So everybody, 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.200 we've already achieved some horrible pun hat trick. Everybody who 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:02.280 misses Lauren's eye rolling, just that her spirit is living 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.800 in Joe right now, even though Lauren herself is not 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:08.800 in thet Yeah. So um, but no, it's it's true. 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.399 The the actual chairs are going to do this this 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.119 triple job of being the place where you sit, the 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:16.760 place where you sleep, in the place where you have 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:19.960 to go to the bathroom because they couldn't incorporate a 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:24.000 separate lavatory because again, every single bit of weight counts. 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:28.480 It seems like there would be ventilation shues. Yeah, I haven't. 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.920 I haven't actually seen any illustrations or animations of how 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.280 this actually works, Like, does does the does a little 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.200 bit of the bottom of the chair just open up 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:41.960 to the to the I mean, who knows? I honestly 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:43.880 do not know the answer to that, because I haven't 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.320 seen the illustrations I've seen. I've seen footage of them 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.760 testing out the chairs, laying it back into cot form, 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:53.880 but not the pooping. Well, here's a question I don't 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.960 know if you know the answer to. Is the cabin pressurized? 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.480 Are they flying at such an altitude that they don't 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:02.320 have to press size the cabin? And now the pictures 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:07.120 I've seen, I've seen them wearing essentially air masks as well, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.440 so I would imagine that the cabin is not pressurized. 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:15.040 But I also imagine they're not typically flying in an 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.760 altitude where that's too much of a problem. They did, 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.520 as I saw, have have masks there because I saw 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.560 a guy who essentially he pulls the mask aside in 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.399 order to eat a little snack cake, drink a little water, 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.280 put the mask back on, go on his merry way. Um, 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:33.919 But whether or not the whole thing is pressurized, I 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.639 don't think it is because again, that would require a 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:38.840 lot of weight to be able to put in the 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:42.440 systems necessary. You have to seal everything off, obviously, because 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:44.720 if if you don't seal everything off, you can't maintain 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.080 a pressure, and you know, it would just be escaping 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:49.080 the whole time. Plus then you would have to have 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.199 the mechanisms necessary to pressurize the cabin, and all of 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:54.919 that adds weight. So really, when it comes to solar 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:57.600 aircraft in general, not just the Solar Impulse, but any 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:02.800 solar aircraft, anything that's not absolutely necessary to maintain flight 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:06.040 tends to be left behind. So you don't have a 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.200 lot of the systems and a lot of the other niceties. 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:10.520