WEBVTT - Solar Impulse Ends its Journey 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.280 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:15.120 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.040 podcast that looks at the future and says, I'm taking 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.880 an aeroplane across the world to follow my heart. I'm 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:24.840 Jonathan Strickland, and I'm Joe McCormick, and our other host, 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.319 Lauren fill Gobamb is not with us today. She's not 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.000 feeling well. But today Jonathan and I are going to 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:32.559 be talking about a subject that we've touched on in 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.320 the past, and we're gonna come back and experience the 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:39.600 fulfillment of an around the world journey of technology. Yeah. 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.760 So back in April in two thousand fourteen, on April 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.320 twenty three, to be precise, we published a podcast about 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.960 solar powered vehicles, and we talked a lot about all 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.800 sorts of different vehicles. Right, we talked about solar powered tanks. 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:56.080 Don't think we got quite around to that, but we 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.080 got the cars and boats and and even airplanes. And 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.400 we're talking about all sorts of different types of vehicles, 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:06.240 including are different ways of using solar power from using 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:10.080 solar power just as the primary means of getting energy 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.400 to move the car to using solar power as a 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:19.800 recharging station for electric vehicles, sort of a backup. Yeah, 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:23.520 but one of the things we chatted about was this 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:28.000 idea of a solar powered aircraft making a journey around 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.959 the world. Yeah, so you may have remember the name 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:34.800 of this project. It was known as Solar Impulse back 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.040 in the day. But we're sort of at the next level. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.600 It's one better. We've gone to Solar Impulse to write. 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.120 The first Solar Impulse aircraft was impressive in its own right. 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:46.360 We'll touch on that a little bit in this podcast, 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.680 but it was the Solar Impulse too, that was the 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.480 vehicle of choice to try and get around the world 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:58.040 using only solar power as the source of energy. And 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.200 they succeeded. They did. They've just seated in a full 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:05.680 circumnavigation of the globe in a completely solar powered airplane. Now, 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.080 if if you haven't been reading about this and and 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.399 you're like, wait a minute, how long did it take? 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.440 Did they ever land? It wasn't continuous, no, no, it 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.560 was It was over the course of many, many, many 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:23.040 segments and well well even kind of uh talk about 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.560 just a few of those segments in particular, when something 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.680 of real interest beyond I mean beyond just the fact 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.520 that they did this incredible feat flying an airplane using 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.200 solar power to generate electricity. Yeah, I guess I've read 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.080 enough articles about Solar Impulse that I got kind of jaded. 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.960 I'm like, yeah, another Solar Impulse article. I need to 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:46.760 remember to be astonished that this is a solar powered airplane. 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:51.000 This is a heavier than air flying machine running entirely 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:55.680 on photovolta excels. I still occasionally, when I'm on an airplane, 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.040 We'll have that moment of this is incredible, and then 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.000 I think, well, not only is this incredible, but someone 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.800 has created a solar powered one of these. Typically I 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.519 am on a jet, not an airplane airplane, so it's 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.639 not exactly the same thing, but it is really interesting. 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.040 And uh, we'll talk about kind of the motivations behind 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.239 doing this in the first place, Well, what happens next 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.840 now that this around the world journey has come to 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.359 an end, and some other interesting tidbits about the project 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.400 here and there. But first we should kind of talk 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.640 about where did this idea even come from to start with? 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.520 And and I actually went back and listen to that 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.280 April fourteen episode because I want to make sure that 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:39.960 when we did this episode, we didn't overlap too much, right, 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.320 we didn't repeat ourselves, but really we were we were 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.400 pretty uh, we were covering so many different topics in 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.080 that episode that we didn't really dwell too much on 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.320 Solar Impulse. So I feel okay about diving into the 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.080 background a little bit in this one. Uh. There were 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.840 two people who were really the the heart behind the project, 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.480 the people who kind of came up with this notion 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.040 and decided to um to really move forward with it, 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:09.800 one as Pinky and the brain. It's odd that you 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:11.800 put it that way, and I'll tell you why, because 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.680 one of them is sort of the technical expert and 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.880 the other one was sort of the adventurer type. But 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.800 they both have taken turns flying the Solar Impulse to 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:26.520 around the world. So the two people were Bertrand Picard 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:31.719 and Andre Borschberg. Bertrand Picard was born in Lausanne in 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:36.400 Switzerland and ninety eight, and on the Solar Impulse website 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.279 if you wanted to read up on him, he is 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.120 referred to as quote a medical doctor, explorer and lecturer 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.880 and achieved the first ever NonStop round the world balloon flight. 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.280 Oh I didn't even know he was also a balloonist. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.760 Oh yeah, No, he comes from a family of balloonists. 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.440 That is not even a joke. That sounds like it 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.440 would be a joke, like, yeah, my family's into ballooning. 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:01.560 It's absolutely true in the case Mr Picard, So this 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.160 is this is uh, this is not our brain. This 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:06.720 is our pinky. Here not to say that he's not intelligent, 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:09.760 but he's he's he's our pinky. He's not the technical 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:13.200 he wasn't the technical advisor. He's a psychiatrist. So clearly 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.760 is already very intelligent. His father was an undersea explorer, 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.760 his grandfather was a balloonist. Other members of the Picard 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:25.360 family include organic chemists and other explorers and balloonists. I mean, 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.280 when you read about the family, you're thinking, this sounds 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.080 like something out of a fantasy. And in fact, there 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.919 can't be that many families of balloonists in the world, 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:41.080 you would, Yeah, probably very few and far between. Bertrand's grandfather, 0:05:41.200 --> 0:05:45.479 August Picard, was the inspiration for a character in the 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:50.000 Adventures of ten ten. Yeah, there's a professor. There's a 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.360 professor in in the Adventures who's this brainy professor type, 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.280 and he was modeled in part on Bertrand Picard's grandfather. 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.800 Why that professor? He makes me think inc of Trotsky? 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.680 Does he look like Trotsky? I don't know that I 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.760 would describe him as Trotsky looking. I guess. I mean, 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.800 here's what I will say. The character is partly inspired 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.280 by August Picard. I'm just trying to picture him. I 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:19.080 might have the wrong character in my mind. There's so 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.240 many intintin to write. But it's it's funny that, you know, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.040 you talk about, yeah, these they sound almost like cartoon characters, 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:26.520 and then you realize, oh wait, one of them kind 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.960 of inspired a cartoon character. Uh. And. Bertrand himself did 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:32.960 a lot of flying as a young man. He flew 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:37.120 in ultralight aircraft, in balloons and in hang gliders, and 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.520 he completed his circumnavigation of the globe in a hot 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.400 air balloon in n So he had already set a 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.120 record before moving on to the Solar Impulse project. Like 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.080 he had set the record as being part of a 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.800 project to fly around the world in a hot air balloon. 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:54.640 So he wanted to move up to something that was 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.920 just slightly more high tech. Yeah, yeah, and and much 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.960 more challenging in many ways from a technical standpoint, at 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:05.480 least endurance wise. It's probably pretty rough either way. But 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:08.960 the other member, of course, Andre Borschberg, he was a 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.040 graduate of m I T. So he's in his training 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.360 is in an engineering that's kind of where his education 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.640 was focused. And he was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:22.240 nineteen fifty two. And he's also like I mean, if 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.000 you read up on him, he is an incredible advocate 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:29.920 for a lot of social causes. Uh. He has dedicated 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:34.200 a lot of time and resources to organizations like Rustos 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:38.000 Decur which is or used to be known as Restaurants decor. 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.440 This is actually a French organization that provides food to 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.040 the needy. Um. He's also helped with social causes that 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:50.000 benefit the sick. He's he's someone who is he's very 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:55.119 outspoken about his desire to improve the lot of people 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:57.440 around the world in as many ways as he can, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.600 and also has a lot of passion about the environment, 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.280 as does Picard as well. Both of them share this 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:07.040 and obviously that played a large part into the decision 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:11.080 to try and make a solar powered airplane, which you'd 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.800 think was kind of crazy. Um he was sort of 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.360 the technical department head. So yeah, he's our he's our brain. 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.200 So when did they get this crazy idea to try 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:21.840 to make a solar powered airplane that they could take 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.200 around the planet. Well, Picard kind of came up with 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.520 it in two thousand two, and then he ended up 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:31.520 talking with Boschberg and they decided to officially create a 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:35.080 project called the Solar Impulse Project in two thousand three. 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.920 So that was when they really started to say, well, 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:40.800 what what's going to be necessary? What are we going 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:45.160 to need in order to make this happen? And there 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:47.720 were a lot of reasons that they were excited about 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.200 doing this. Sorry, the thing that popped into my mind 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:55.079 is parachute. Yeah right, uh yeah, we I didn't put 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.040 it in our notes, but I will touch on something 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.960 interesting because there are certain questions that immediately come up 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.040 of mind when you start hearing about how long some 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.360 of these flights were, and I will I will go 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.400 into some of that when we get bad pans, yeah, 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.319 or the fact that well no, let's not let's let's 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:14.080 spoil it. I'll get there. Uh. So one of the 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.400 reasons that they decided they wanted to do this, of course, 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:20.920 was just the attractiveness of of setting another world record, right, 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.160 creating a world's first. I mean, there could only be 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:27.160 one world's first in any given category, and this was 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:29.760 a way of doing that. So there's there's definitely that 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.760 that sort of fame and explorer kind of side of 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.600 the equation. Yeah, but this wouldn't be just a personal achievement. 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:39.719 Like anytime you demonstrate what can be done with renewable 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.320 energy in a way that surprises people, I think that 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.200 helps knock down some of the barriers that exist in 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:50.760 opposition to greater investment in renewable energy like solar. Right, Yeah, 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.439 that's precisely what they were seeing too. They were saying like, well, 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.160 this is kind of like a a giant PR project 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.640 to promote solar energy in particular and renewable energy in general. 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.559 And they also said, you know, by setting yourself a challenge, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.840 by giving yourself a definitive goal that we want to 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.480 be able to achieve X, you then have to determine, well, 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.600 what is necessary for you to get to X. It 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.120 gives you something to work toward, which is a little 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.080 bit easier than something that's open ended, like I want 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.200 to improve solar cell technology. It's kind of like saying 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.240 we're going to go to the Moon, as opposed to 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.840 we're going to develop our space exploration capabilities. Yes, and 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.840 by giving yourself that definitive goal, then you have created 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:39.000 like a laserlike focus on what is necessary to achieve 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:43.400 that goal. And the nice thing is making those advancements 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:47.480 ends up creating benefits that go well beyond just that 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.080 specific project, and we'll talk a little bit about that 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.600 towards the end of this episode. So from two thousand 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.560 three to two thousand and ten, they were really working 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.120 on designing the plane that could fly not just in 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.840 the daytime with direct solar energy. So it's one thing 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:07.440 to create an aircraft that has enough surface area for 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:11.520 solar cells to provide the electricity necessary to turn electric 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.080 or to power electric motors that then turn propellers. That's 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.040 a challenge all on its own. Yeah, And we'll talk 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.000 more about some of those design considerations in a bit, right. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:22.720 So the other part of that is how do you 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:27.000 create one that can continue to fly when the sun 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:31.040 goes down, because that that's been the big criticism. One 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.080 of the big criticisms about solar power in general is that, well, 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:36.600 you're dependent upon the sun. When the sun is not out, 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.320 you're not generating electricity, and so you have to figure out, well, 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:44.160 how do you solve that problem for any application that 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.040 uses solar power and not I mean flying a plane 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:51.960 across the Pacific Ocean. That's a pretty clear engineering challenge, right, Well, yeah, 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:55.319 electricity generation is a use it, lose it, or store 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:59.280 it proposition. If you don't use it immediately or find 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.520 a way to store it, it's not going to help you. Yeah, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.600 it's just it's there, it's ephemeral, it's gone. Right. So 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:10.320 they were able to create in two thousand ten the 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:14.920 Solar Impulse one, the first of the aircraft, and uh 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:19.360 demonstrate that it could actually fly through an entire day 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.920 night cycle using onboard batteries to store electricity and then 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.320 the batteries kick in once the solar cells are no 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.480 longer able to pull the electricity necessary to power the motors. 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.240 And um Picard flew that mission. It was a twenty 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:37.439 six hour long flight, so a day and two hours 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.360 of flying, and it was again a proof of concept. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.959 They knew at the time that the Solar Impulse one 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.480 was not going to be the aircraft to go all 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:47.080 the way around the world. But it was sort of 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.080 the prototype that allowed them to test the technology and 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.600 make sure that in fact, it would serve when they 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:58.959 needed to get to UH to circumnavigate the globe. UH. 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.280 In two thousand, the two men flew the Solar Impulse 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:06.520 aircraft across the United States. UH. They took turns piloting 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:10.120 the plane, and they traveled in several legs, so they 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:13.800 would fly from one city to another city several hundred 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.080 miles away, and then UH. Typically what they would do 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.079 is actually switch off so that one person only one 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:24.120 persons in the plane because weight is such a big consideration, right, 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.480 So you got the pilot and that's it, and the 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.840 other person would either take a commercial flight to get 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:32.240 to the destination or drive to the destination. Really you 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.760 could probably run and yeah, I mean if you were yeah, 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.640 these these plane, this plane does not go very fast 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.360 in the grand scheme of things. But then you would 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:43.800 switch off, you know, you go to whatever the next 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:47.160 city is, and then the pilots would trade. And this 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:51.800 was not can This wasn't necessarily like one flight right 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:53.960 after the next either, Right, there was a lot of 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.319 downtime between flights because for one thing, they needed to 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.000 make sure that the weather conditions were going to be acceptable. Yeah, 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.920 that's a big thing, because this this plane's even though 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.480 it's made out of some pretty interesting high tech material, 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.240 ultimately you're still talking about a fairly delicate machine. And 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.800 so you couldn't just and plus again, you need solar power. 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:18.000 You need sunlight. So flying through like storms not a 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.440 great idea with a solar powered aircraft. Usually when the 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:22.840 captain says we can't take off in this weather, it 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.160 is a safety consideration. In this case, you literally might 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.960 not be able, you might not have the energy necessary 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.600 to achieve light. Yeah. So, but that that happened in 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.600 two thousand thirteen, they were able to fly across the 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.760 United States in this in this several legs kind of journey. 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.800 And in two thousand and fourteen they officially started to 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.720 work on the second aircraft, Solar Impulse too, and they 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.600 began to incorporate lessons that they learned from the first 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.120 Solar Impulse aircraft. And this one would be the one 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.080 that ends up flying around the world. That didn't start 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.920 until two thousand and fifteen, and it went until July 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.720 two thousand sixteen. So it's really took a year in 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.640 several months. Yeah, it was a long process. This was 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:12.880 not again, something that was done in one continuous trip. Um. 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.040 So let's talk about some of the design considerations that 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.920 come into play when you're talking about a solar powered aircraft. Well, 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.280 the most obvious one is the difference in the energy 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.080 that you're using to power the vehicle. So in a 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.560 normal airplane you would use to circumnavigate the globe, you're 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:31.720 going to be running on aviation fuel. There are different 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.600 kinds of aviation fuel, but most often it's a kerosene 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.600 based jet fuel these days, and that's going to be 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.320 a high energy density, high quality fuel. Uh. And it's 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.560 important for flight because heavier than air flight is not 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.840 just energy hungry, it's energy ravenous. Um. You have to 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:53.240 generate enough thrust to overcome the gravity of the entire planet. 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:55.480 I mean, just think about it, and the planet is 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:57.520 constantly trying to pull you down to it and give 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.960 you a big earthy hug. Right. So it is rather earthy, 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.440 isn't it. Yes? I guess it could also be briny, Yeah, 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:07.360 I guess, depending upon what part of the Earth you 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.640 are over. Actually, it's more briny than earthy when you 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.400 really get down to surface area. But go on, quite true. 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.800 But yeah, so these are design considerations you'd have to 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.640 factor in. So to lift an airplane off the ground, 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.040 you've got to generate that forward thrust to to drive 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.160 the the air and the way you wanted to go 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.440 across the aerodynamic design of the airplane under the wings. Uh, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.160 so you know there are considerations like the wing span. 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:36.120 You can make the wings longer to generate more lift 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:38.800 as you're trying to fly, but that also adds ways, right, 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:40.560 so you have to you have to make that. I mean, 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:45.480 there's so much delicate math that goes into designing something 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:47.160 like this where you think, all, right, what is the 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:52.160 optimal arrangement of wingspan to weight where we're gonna have 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.640 the large enough wingspan to generate the lift we need 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:58.960 to get off the ground and and hopefully have the 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:03.760 best wing span to uh improve the efficiency of flight 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.720 so that you're not having to spend way too much 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.119 energy to maintain flight. Like you want to have the 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.240 minimum amount of energy you need to continue to be 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.160 in the air, but you don't want you can't go 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.960 you know, you can't make a wingspan of indefinite length, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.080 because eventually you get to a weight that it makes 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.400 it impossible for you to achieve flight in the first place. 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:27.360 Structural integrity exams and that also is a real issue, right, 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.160 like if you've got too big, then the ends of 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.160 the wings would be so heavy that your aircraft would 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:38.000 break apart. Yeah. So this aircraft was powered by photovoltaic sils, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.639 as we said, so, yes, that's the kind that directly 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:44.480 converts the sunlight into electricity, as opposed to other forms 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.040 of solar such as solar thermal. Right, it's not it's 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.639 not generating electricity through heat. It's changing it's when the 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:55.240 photons excite electrons, and that's what you get with your electricity. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.120 And it's just the big black mirrors that you see yep, yep, 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.679 the kind that you would see on typically like if 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.120 if if your neighbors, or if you have ever installed 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.920 solar panels on the top of a house, that's typically 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.440 the kind that we're talking about, right. So it's got 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:13.200 a lot of those. It's got seventeen thousand two photovoltaic 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.840 cells that are across the top of the airplane for 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:19.840 a maximum exposure. Yeah, and and those cells provide electricity 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.840 to four thirteen point five kilowatton motors, and those motors 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:27.560 each turn. Each motor turns a propeller and also provides 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:31.119 charge to onboard batteries. So if you look at the 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.280 Solar Impulse too, and you see this this plane with 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.000 really wide wings, you'll see that there are the four 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:41.960 propellers in these little like rectangular casings. Those casings hold 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.840 not just the propeller and the electric motor, but also 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.159 the battery, the four big batteries that are on board 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.760 this plane. So that's where they're balanced there along the wings, 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.359 so that the weight is distributed just the right way, 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:57.520 and that the propellers are positioned in such a way 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.520 to provide the optimal thrust for the air craft. Now, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.720 those batteries have to be an interesting design consideration because 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:08.120 usually batteries are heavy. Yeah, these batteries are are They 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:12.080 make up twenty of the aircraft's overall weight. More than 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:15.200 actually it's more more than a quarter of the weight 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:18.480 of the aircraft goes to those four batteries that are 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.280 in that the wings of the Solar Impulse to do. Yeah, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.520 so let's get into the design here. So, yeah, this 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:26.320 thing if you've seen a picture of it, and if 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:27.840 you haven't, you should go look it up. There are 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:32.320 some great photo galleries online and Solar Impulse, either at 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.200 stations around the world or in flight. It's cool looking. 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:39.600 It's got a massive wingspan, gigantic. Yeah, it's huge, a 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:45.080 wingspan of seventy two ms. And that is compared for comparison. 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.240 I looked up the wingspan of a Bowing seven eight, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.800 which is sixty eight point four meters, So this is 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:56.960 a one passenger aircraft that has a wider wingspan than 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.720 a Bowing seven Right. And uh, in case you're not 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.080 up on the metrics, for one thing, if you wanted 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:07.439 to switch it to yards, it's almost seventy nine yards wide, 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.320 which means that it's getting pretty close to being as 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:12.960 wide as a football field is long. I mean, you 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:14.520 know it would it would if you were to put 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:16.359 it in the center line of a football field, it 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:20.639 would span a very good portion, pretty much to the 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.520 two ten yard lines. Yeah, it's it's pretty impressive. It's 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.160 about two thirty six feet if you prefer feet to yards. 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:32.280 Uh yeah, so huge wingspan, but on, but compare that 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.600 to the fact that the entire airplane. According to those 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.200 public facing material Solar Impulse put out, it weighs two 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:42.320 point three tons. Okay, so that's a lot if you're 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.280 trying to like lift it with your arms. Yeah, but 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.919 that is not a lot for an aircraft. Compare that 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.960 again to a Boeing seven actually, the weight of which 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.680 I couldn't find from Boeing itself. I'm I guess maybe 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:56.960 we shouldn't consider it surprising that they don't want to 0:20:57.080 --> 0:20:59.920 share publicly the weight of their aircraft. But I did 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:05.159 find an online aviation encyclopedia that claimed that the empty 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.400 weight of a Boeing seven forty seven is about four 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:14.880 hundred and seventy thousand pounds, which works out to two Yeah, 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:19.480 that's that's hefty, But think about the comparison there. So 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.280 the Solar Impulse has about a hundred and five percent 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.800 of a seven forty seven swing span and less than 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.800 one percent of its empty weight. Right, So you already 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.040 are seeing that they had to make some pretty uh 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:37.000 dramatic considerations in order to make this a viable aircraft. 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:39.320 Beyond that, you could say, well, how do they get 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.679 the weight so low? And part of it was the 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.560 use of lightweight materials like various carbon fiber composites that 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.480 are lighter in weight than stuff like steel and aluminum. 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:54.760 But that's not enough. They also decided, hey, is this 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:58.239 particular system necessary for the plane to get up and 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:00.600 stay up in the air, And if it isn't, we're 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:02.879 getting rid of it. And that's exactly what they did 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.919 when they started designing the Solar Impulse. They said, anything 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:10.000 that's not specifically necessary to get into the air or 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.679 stay in the air, we're not gonna put it on 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.439 the plane. So do they have like the pilots weighing 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:19.000 their breakfast that they before they take off. I'm certain 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:23.520 that they had very specific like, uh, allotments for what 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.840 food could be brought onto the plane because you have 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.280 to eat. Some of these flights took more than a 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:35.440 hundred hours uh and that's multiple days obviously. So one 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:37.120 of the other things they would do is say, like, well, 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.160 you know, it would it would be pretty heavy if 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.480