Eshan Maitra
A French alternative energy company, Laboratoire Océan Vital really made this possible. Raphaël Dinelli is the core developer of his company, has been working on this for 7 years.He is a scientist, entrepreneur, pilot and also a veteran of several solo voyages. He named his beautiful hybrid plane ‘Eraole’. That has solar panels attached to its wings and a biofuel source provided by algae during the nighttime, when sunlight isnot available. Other than that, it only has a tiny set of lithium-ion batteries to give it some early thrust fortakeoff. Dinelli assured to set sail in June across the Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to New York.
It is a marvelous creation of alternative energy. With no carbon based fuel powering it. The full energy for the journey will be covered by 25% percent solar power, 20% powerless gliding and 55% algae-based biofuel. The cockpit is extra small. It will also carry 30% less oxygen than regular Europe to New York flights. These will make the plane extra lightweight. Also the cabin on the plane will not be pressurized to save further more energy. They have done several demo runs at highest 10,000 feet altitude and at the speed of 100 km/h. Their developer team is very much confident about the journey. Only challenge for Dinelli will be flying for 60 hours straight with no autopilot system. But he is going with his gut as a veteran pilot.
If they become successful to pull this through, this will be revolutionary in the field of alternative energy and air transportation. By the report New York Times, it costs the environment 2-3 tons of carbon emission per person to make one trip over Atlantic. It is a wake-up call to the consequences of air travel with the carbon based fuel.