Solar Powered Plane that works: $95 Million. Ospry: $27 BILLION before it stopped crashing. (rant)

[FormerDittoHead]

Am I the only one who sees something VERY wrong with this picture?

Rant on.

Bloomberg reports...
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-08/solar-powered-aircraft-lands-after-overnight-flight.html

That Germans have put up not even $100 million and have a WORKING solar powered airplane.

WE spend $27 BILLION before the Boeing Ospry (now in use) stopped crashing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell-Boeing_V-22_Osprey
( btw: Boeing is a privately run, "rugged individualist company" - gov't only fueled their lack of efficiency, innovation and invention )

Don't lecture me about how complicated the Ospry mechanics are - WE DON'T NEED IT - not for $27 billion of R&D. There is NO NEED for its consumer application for GENERATIONS (outside of rich people thinking how cool it would be to go to the roof then fly to Washington to lobby for lower taxes)

CONSIDER: if it were a private company using private dollars, they would have given up on it a LONG time ago...

How much R&D in alternative energy would $27 BILLION have bought us?

I can tell you that $95 million gets you a solar powered plane

Because of its solar tax incentives, American companies are EXPORTING money INTO GERMANY by the BILLIONS:
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20080717/german-clean-energy-tax-credit-attracts-big-money-us-firm

AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? ARE THE LEADERS OF THIS COUNTRY REALLY THIS STUPID, IS OUR SYSTEM REALLY THIS BROKEN?

PS: "As of 2008, $27 billion have been spent on the Osprey program and another $27.2 billion will be required to complete planned production numbers by the end of the program..."

Rant off.

[Fumesucker]

1. The leaders aren't stupid, they are bought and paid for.. K&R..

[unhappycamper]

2. And I can tell you an MV-22 Osprey costs us $100 million dollars.

Say thanks to St. Ronnie.

[caraher]

3. A solar powered plane will never do what an Osprey is supposed to do

Sunlight isn't very energy-intense (about 1 kW per square meter in full sunlight) and batteries are heavy. The solar plane is a nifty piece of technology demonstration, but comparing it to the Osprey is like comparing an ultralight to a jet airliner. Just because they both fly doesn't mean the challenges are remotely comparable.

Sadly, when I see something like this solar plane my first thought is that the long-term use for the technology will be for drones with effectively unlimited loiter time, not transportation.

Still, your larger point stands - we're dumping billions into corporate welfare for defense industries when we need a Manhattan or Apollo project for green technologies. If the BP gusher doesn't prove need that nothing will!

[FormerDittoHead]

4. Thanks - It wasn't meant to be a plane to plane comparison, but R&D dollars to dollars...

I just think we've become desensitized as to how much it takes to do things.

When R&D money for alternative energy is proposed, $X is "too much" and "we don't have it"...

When Boeing gets $27 BILLION for something we REALLY don't need, "there's nothing we can do to change it..."

That's the thinking I'd like to see change.

[hobbit709]

5. +100

There's always money for boom boom toys but never money for anything else.

[Odin2005]

6. Most defense contracts are corporate welfare pork, they are not for making useful stuff.

I swear, we could cut the defense budget in half without hurting the quality of our forces just by cutting out all the BS defense contractor pork that goes into designing expensive toys we don't need.

Chomsky calls it military Keynesianism.

[FormerDittoHead]

7. Thank you so much for the reference.

For YEARS I've know OF this, but the TERM was missing from my vocabulary, and it's yielded a wealth of resources - I'm not the only one!

thanks again.

[msongs]

8. osprey is designed to attack the US treasury and not much else nt

[ladjf]

9. The solar plane as it is now designed isn't likely to ever be able

to generate the power for long distance travel as our current planes are able to do. But, there may well be other designs that would be very useful. One thing comes to mind would be giant dirigibles carrying freight at slow speeds but using solar PVC's. The large surface of the dirigible might be adequate to run some fairly large electric motors.