{"id":1190,"date":"2010-06-24T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=1190"},"modified":"2010-06-24T19:07:27","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T02:07:27","slug":"solar-sailer-seeks-companionship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/solar-sailer-seeks-companionship\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Sailer Seeks Companionship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Until now, all solar flight has been solo.\u00a0 This is understandable, given the need for light weight and\u00a0large wing areas.\u00a0 But Eric Raymond is about to change this with Sunseeker III, the world’s first two-seat solar-powered airplane, shown at\u00a0last weekend’s Green Aviation Show at Le Bourget Field near Paris, France.\u00a0 Indoor displays were in the Musee’ de l’Air et de L’Espace (the Air and Space Museum).<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gerard Feldzer, director of the Musee', enjoys the left seat. Note the illustration of the soon-to-be finished product.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunseeker III has a roomy side-by-side seating arrangement in a fuselage derived from the Stemme sailplane.\u00a0\u00a0The wing is\u00a0crafted from the molds (on long-term loan) for\u00a0Stuttgart University’s\u00a025-meter (80 feet) Icare II<\/a>,\u00a0flown in 1996.\u00a0 As Raymond explains in his blog, “Professor Nitschmann\u2019s design firm www.sfl-gmbh.de<\/a>\u00a0is very friendly to our project, and we hope to work together in the future on solar powered aircraft.”\u00a0\u00a0 The 20 kilowatt motor is being developed by Slovenian Roman Susnik<\/a>, and fabrication of the wings is taking place in Slovenia, making the effort a virtual European Union assemblage.<\/p>\n

In his blog<\/a>, Raymond expressed the hope that the Stuttgart team would have Icare flying\u00a0again\u00a0by this summer, with a possible friendly competition between Sunseeker II and the German plane planned.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Roman Susnik displays his motor in the mockup's tail mounting<\/p><\/div>\n

Outside, Raymond flew Sunseeker II four times during the weekend show and received the well-deserved\u00a0attention of the French press.<\/p>\n