World's First AA Battery Powered Plane Gets Airborne
by Warren McLaren, Sydney 
on 07.17.06
OK, so there were 160 AA batteries, and it only flew for less than a minute, to cover a little shy of 400 meters (~428 yards), but that is still a significant feat. Especially as it was a ‘personed’ flight, piloted by 53 kg (117 lb) Tomohiro Kamiya, from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
The batteries used were Oyxride from Japan’s Matsushita Panasonic brand. The name being derived from their composition of Oxy Nickel Hydroxide. They are said to long-lasting, with 1.5 times the power of regular alkaline batteries. the flight on Sunday 16 July 06, was accredited by the Japan Aeronautic Association, as officially the world's first manned flight powered by dry-cell batteries. Oh, and funky curved wings stretch a full 31m (102’). Via ::Yahoo News UK.
PS. According to the Oxyride website, last year they also managed to power a (18kg) 40 lb car for 1.2 km (3/4 mile) on just 2 AA batteries! UPDATE: Have just noted that Linton posted about this car, yonks ago on Hugg.
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I have a AA solar battery charger that I bought from ebay, it can charge 4 AA's in a day. Give me 40 days and I'll have enough juice to carry this another 400 meters on clean energy... =)
I have a AA solar battery charger that I bought from ebay, it can charge 4 AA's in a day. Give me 40 days and I'll have enough juice to carry this another 400 meters on clean energy... =)
and sinse when disposable batteries = green ???
"and sinse when disposable batteries = green ???"
It's just like electric vechicles, they're "green" in the minds of many people.
The house current that would charge the EV starts out as considerable amount coal and loses tremendous amounts of potential energy at every step of conversion and transmission.
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editor note: Lets be careful. Not all systems are equal. Batteries can be recycled and not all electricity comes from coal, and the alternatives to batteries has to be examined too.
And batteries can be recharged as well (from renewable power).
But let's not stray from the reason this was posted on TH. It is a 'proof-of-concept' experiment that indicates mobility can be achieved with minimal use of fossil fuels. I very much doubt that you'll be buying one of these to do the shopping, commute to work or go on vacation in.
It's just like a solar car — it simply shows that other opportunities are open to us. It opens the minds (and ain't that a great thing?) of designers and engineers to alternative possibilities.
Every time you switch on your playstation you are paying another terrorist.
In 1981 a solar powered plane was flown across the english channel. 25 years later... this. Pardon me for feeling sad.
Verizon is about the only place you can get the authentic RIM product and matching door. Most other sites are out of stock and even when they are in stock they have the black battery door which looks like crap.