Is it a bird? Is it is a plane? No, it’s a super solar-powered blimp!
French engineering students unveiled the first ever solar-powered blimp this June at the Paris Air Show. After a summer full of test-flights, the design crew for project Sol’R hopes to launch Nephelios, a giant sun-energized balloon, across the English Channel.
The enormous blimp measures 72 feet long and 16 feet wide. The aircraft is outfitted with a light nylon and polyethylene aluminum frame and is covered in flexible solar panels. Using energy from the sun, these panels power a small motor that turns two big propellers.
According to Inhabitat, a green technology blog, these solar cells can generate up to 2.4 kilowatts of power -- enough to send the blimp flying across the channel in under an hour at 25 mph.
Sol’R was started in 2008 as a collaboration between engineering students at several French technical schools around the country.
The designers told Inhabitat that their motivation for building this unique blimp was “just to show that it’s possible.”
The mammoth aircraft was initially scheduled to launch last year, but was grounded due to technical difficulties. With the kinks finally worked out, test flights could restart as early as next week.
Image: Le blog du Projet Sol'R
Tags: Carbon Emissions, Engineering, Green Science, Renewable Energy
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