Originally Posted by
Aeirum
The possibilities are many.
No, they're not.
I followed the Solar Impulse as it did it's around the world flight, and visited it on the ground, as well as watched arrivals and departures. I viewed it as a historic aviation event, and found it a remarkable achievement.
That said, it was a very large airplane with a very light payload traveling at very slow speeds, and had to be cooled and charged for extended periods on the ground. It required a team of about 60 engineers and considerable ground equipment, flown in transport category large aircraft around the world to support the airplane. Despite the facade of efficiency, it was quite the opposite, burning a great deal of fossil fuel in two jet transports, and a lot of energy in diesel generators to run chargers and cooling equipment, while it was on it's mission. Add it in there and the solar impulse burned a lot more fossil fuel, and proved far, far less efficient, than if they'd simply jumped in a learjet, or even a 757, and flown around the world. Go figure. All that to carry one guy.
Solar Impulse was proof of concept, an exercise, and not the end result, but a step in a long journey. It's a far cry to point to economically viable electric aerial transport at this point in time, however.
Will it eventually be possible? Maybe.