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Old December 30th 12, 07:16 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
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Default The new Electric Cessna 172

Vaughn wrote:
On 12/22/2012 6:20 PM, wrote:
And you had better keep this thing hangered in places with any significant
hail with those solar panels on top of the wings.

If you keep the plane in a hanger, there is really little point to
having solar panels at all because the panels would rarely see
significant sunlight. (They won't do you much good for the relatively
brief periods the plane is actually flying. Their unreliable and
relatively meager output is unlikely to measurably increase range.)


If you look at the wing area of a 172 and calculate how much power you
can get, you find they aren't much good for charging the battery either
unless you go days between flights.

Also, solar panels aren't terribly vulnerable to hail. Otherwise, there
would be little point in mounting them on rooftops.


Rooftop solar panels are mounted at the latitude of the location to
receive maximum power, so a hailstone will hit at an angle of about 30
to 45 degrees from most of the US and tend to glance off.

The solar panels on a wing are going to be horizontal and will take a
direct hit from a hailstone.

There are many places in the US where it is not unusual for hailstones
to dent the tops of cars.