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Old 23rd Apr 2016, 14:44
  #13 (permalink)  
Wageslave
 
Join Date: May 2011
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That Trent 900 will be putting out 25% or less of its full rated thrust in cruise at 40,000'.
It it possible in the foreseeable future? YES!
95Mw is 95Mw. If the wing area can only provide .85Mw you are still less than 1% of the way there. That is nowhere near a "significant percentage" is it? It is probably less than the allowed shortfall between individual Trent 900s due to wear and tear.

And that 0.85% is with a 100% efficient solar cell and the entire wing area remaining at right angles to the sun.

So you need either a wing that is 120 times bigger or to turn the sun up a hundred and twenty fold. And never to fly at night, nor need to take off or go around (need 4 times that much power to do that). Factor in pv cell efficiency and make it perhaps 300 times bigger. Are you getting the picture?
Oh, and only ever fly wings level within the tropics at noon.

Why/how is it hard to see that maths and physics fundamentally prevent this happening?

Huge span ultra lightweight long endurance RPVs perhaps. Transport? No. Never from on board PV cells. Can't happen.
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