Solar Powered Plane

Technology gave us another feat with the landing of the solar plane in Hawaii. The single sitter aircraft named Solar Impulse is make a breakthrough in solar technology in flying. In a project by two Swiss scientist who are campaigning for clean technologies, Mr. André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, created an aircraft that would fly over the world in a six month period. The aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi, flying eastwards. It’s expected to take six months before it reaches its original place of departure. The aircraft has a wing span of 72 meters, wider than the 747 jumbo jet and weighs 2.3 tons. It has 17,000 solar cells on its wings which power the plane. The originators of the project said; 16 years ago, they had a dream to fly around the world without fuel and they are now in the process of attempting to do so. They predict that by the year 2050, solar energy may be the biggest source of electricity globally. Solar energy is now a big source of jobs in developing countries. The plane they are using is the second version of their first version they made had some deficiencies in performance.

There has been a debate in the newspapers on whether to put emphasis on sciences or arts as part of Uganda’s education system. The debate has not been conclusive though president Museveni has adamantly pushed sciences to the forefront because he knows the role science has played worldwide in social economic transformation. Poverty in Africa is a result of our inability to use science to exploit our environment to improve ourselves. We have trees everywhere in this country but all we do is cut them down for firewood. We have failed to use them to improve our housing. We have numerous resources but still they go to waste because we cannot exploit them meaningfully. Here are people taking advantage of the sun to power an airplane yet in Europe they are at time when sun shines for only 6m. If we do not think through our needs and put some emphasis on science, we will continue to live in the squalid conditions that we are in. It is not surprising that some of the good brains leave the country, find work elsewhere where they can find the science related jobs.

Addressing the Joseph Mubiru memorial lecture, in Kampala last year 2014, Dr. Mamthphula Ramphele stated; they were 450,000 African graduates in OECD countries. The reason they live is because they don’t have the opportunities to work in their fields in African countries. They believe because they are unable to either work or explore the opportunities available. Most of Africa has 12 hours of sun and abundant free resources and we are short of electricity. If solar was developed, probably the brain power would be different. We should style up.