Solar Impulse got around the world, but it did land plenty of times
Mostly to accommodate its human crew and because the point was to prove the possibility of zero-fuel consumption. Unmanned vehicles showed that 14 days without landing is doable and it was rightly dubbed “eternal plane”.
By the way to fly quietly and freely just try paragliding
I had trouble generating the image, it kept wanting to give it the shape of an airliner, so I started from a paragliding shape. Most solar planes are designed as paragliders with light motors slapped on them.
imagine if it became preferred lifestyle for 10 billion people, air-traffic control could be interesting…
She does not care about setting an example and to be fair she is going to remain a weirdo even to her generation. :-) But I do imagine that actually. This short story is just a way for me to flex my writing muscles that I haven’t used in a while. I want to tell the story of an attempted migration into the air, that relies on huge flying structure that are slow but demonstrate that once you have reached a certain degree of mastery in materials and energy storage, there is basically no limit to the size of your flying devices, as long as you are ready to give enough room for lift-generating surfaces. I want to explore the themes of greenwashing and the slow end of capitalism.
It is so out of the real of what exists that making an AI generate an image of that will be hard.