Solar-Powered Flight Grounded By Equipment Bug 28
crimeandpunishment writes "If your plane is powered by the sun, it's tough to fly if your crew is in the dark. A 24-hour test flight for the world's first solar-powered round-the-world flight had to be postponed Thursday due to an equipment problem that would have left mission control out of touch with the technology on the experimental aircraft. When they're able to make this test flight, they hope by flying all day they'll be able to fully charge the batteries, then use the stored energy to power the plane all night."
Re:Bunch of wimps (Score:1, Informative)
<sigh />
It's telemetry gear that's at issue. The problem is less telling the pilot not to run into the path of that jet (this still works, since their radio is fine), and more telling him that the lithium-ion battery in the left wing is now shorted and about to ignite (which they won't know until it ignites). Not that it matters much, but I guess he'd rather know how he's about to die than not....