Boeing Explores Ultra Low Emission Flight

AC Propulsion did them one better with a Solar powered aircraft. It's only model-sized. But it flew for 48 hours, and according to AC Propulsion, could have stayed aloft indefinitely had not the ground-based pilots gotten tired.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jgills240 @ Mar 29 2007, 03:07 PM) [snapback]414496[/snapback]</div>

Okay. Yes, an electric private plane would be cool. I guess the challenge is the weight of the batteries.

As an aside, when I worked at the homeless shelter, there was a very mentally-ill man who had bought a complete set of instructions for how to build your own plane, and he had announced his intention to build the thing. He was a really nice guy, and a great story-teller. He did a great pantomime of the stiff-legged walk he was forced to do the time he tried to shoplift a shotgun by putting it down his pants. (He didn't get away with it.) I certainly hope he never got hold of the materials for the plane, because I can't imagine him building something that would be airworthy, but I can easily imagine him building something, and trying to take off from a rural road somewhere.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jgills240 @ Mar 30 2007, 06:07 AM) [snapback]414496[/snapback]</div>

I'm with you. I've been a flight instructor for five years and love it, BUT, I'm troubled by the environmental impact GA has on the environment and the almost total silence on the issue by mainstream GA media.
If you want to exchange ideas further, contact me off chatline via email. Thanks for your input.
Bob