# article:Solar power as the future of aviation?



## CougarKing (30 Dec 2009)

Another alternate future fuel/power source for air forces to consider?



> *Can a solar-powered airplane be the future of aviation?*
> 
> While the world's attention was tuned to the recent global climate conference in Copenhagen, in an old airplane hangar on a small Swiss airfield, a group of visionaries, dreamers and engineers was busily assembling a vehicle that is their solution to global climate change and the future of commercial aviation. *This airplane uses no fossil or bio-fuels. It is a solar-powered airplane, collecting the sun's rays on 12,000 solar cells spread across its wings to charge the special lithium-polymer batteries that will continue to power the airplane from sunset till the next sunrise.*
> Earlier this month the Solar Impulse airplane made its maiden flight (as documented in this YouTube video), rising several feet off the ground and staying aloft for a distance of a little over 1,000 feet, somewhat akin to the first flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, N.C., a little more than a century ago.
> ...


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