SOLAR IMPULSE – AROUND THE WORLD IN A SOLAR AIRPLANE

How cool is that?  As a pilot, I’d love to own an airplane like this.  One of the biggest barriers though is operation costs.  With fuel prices these days, it’s extremely expensive to just buy fuel, let alone any of the other mandatory maintenance.  Most light aircraft that I can fly get 8-12 gallons per hour.  They fly around 100 kts (115 mph), so at 10 gph that’s only  11.5 miles per gallon.  A trip from LA to Vegas is 270 miles, so that burns over 23 gallons of fuel.  Add that to the $100/hr rental fee for the airplane … Cha-Ching!