Pathfinder wing tip video at 50,000 feet

[soyounoat]

As a civilian member of a flight test crew in the late 1980s I was lifted to 49,500 ft during a ceiling test. We were over the Cascade mountain range when we arrived there, and we passed directly over Seattle. The curvature of the Earth became visible, as did mountains that were very distant to the north and south. I knew that I was up higher than most civilians will ever go. Love to do it again - but much higher.

[drahunter213]

@soyounoat sounds like alot of fun ol timer hope u get your dream someday and i'll get mine =P

[russotragik]

Paul MacCready design!

AeroVironment rules!

[kaeleon1111]

FL500 o_O

[mrpsycholeojoey87]

this might be off topic but this looks like the same plane that they use in the 1941 superman cartoon intro does not it ill leave everyone alone and let them return to their technical definitions of this airplane

[XxXFreelanceNinjaXxX]

NASA. Ha. Not Another Story Again. NASA has inadvertently released more information about the universe than it will ever reveal formally. Look up STS mission ufos. Accidental release of obvious intelligent, non-human life.

[passemort1515]

Look at the Solar impulse, it's a symbol. We could not take passenger now but we could fly with it around the world.

[offyam]

So it's just flying in our atmosphere constantly with the help of solar panels?

[gustavo87467357]

this airplane's a bullshit!!! why don't they work in something flyable for carry passengers??? does it so difficult for their cientifics??

[dinmagic]

@gustavo87467357

If you want something flyable that carries passenger than just visit your closest airport, I'm sure they have them.

[gustavo87467357]

@dinmagic look, if you didn't understand me, i was sayin that why don't em workin in a kind of plane like that, but with the capability to take some passengers, anyways the objective is to save fuel....

[gustavo87467357]

@dinmagic i hate sarcasm

[NelielTuOderswank]

@gustavo87467357 A solar aircraft that carries passengers will never be created, Never. The power to weight ratios are simply too far apart. Some solar aircraft have managed to carry two humans, but thats about as far as the concept will ever go. This aircraft is an alternative to satellites, so we don't have to spend millions sending them into orbit, and they can instead fly continuously at 70,000ft.

[123MrLap]

@NelielTuOderswank you sound like you know what you're talking about but wouldn't it eventually need repairand take a chance on crashing to the ground?

[NelielTuOderswank]

@123MrLap Thats the solar aircraft's advantage, not its weakness. In order to repair a satellite, you have to spend millions to send a crew into orbit to fix it (Like Hubble). An aircraft like this can simply land to get repairs and checkups at little expense. Furthermore, crashing Satellites are for more dangerous than a solar aircraft. These aircraft have such a low wing loading that they fall like a leaf. A satellite on the other hand falls like, well, a rock, a burning rock.

[jetpoweredgriffin]

@Neli Your ancestors must have criticized the Wright Brothers. If lighter than air lifting bodies are included you are wrong. Yet, even without them, if solar CHARGED electric aircraft are included you are still wrong. Even manned electric helicopters are being flown now and have a promising future. Human powered winged aircraft were pondered for centuries, deemed impossible for decades... but were eventually built and flown. Human-powered helicopters would been laughable at first, but...

[Skippy585]

And it only goes 50 MPH?

[spartan12349]

still flying

[utuberinatube]

isnt called helios?

[FollowTheViking]

That's a different aircraft... this one is pathfinder as viewed from the left wingtip.. helios has a different engine arrangement

[Postal67]

It never came back!