A solar powered 747 might not just be so much of a fairytale in the future!

Simply covering the wings of an airplane with solar panels sure isn’t going to make it fly, not with the current conversion efficiencies solar cells today have. To power up a fully loaded 747-400 jet today, about 200 football fields’ worth of state-of-the-art solar cell would be required, and that isn’t just an overstatement. Recently, Nathan Lewis, a chemist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena came up with a new way to take to the skies using solar energy. Lewis developed PV cells that split water molecules to generate hydrogen gas, a working fuel that can power up airplanes in the future! These photovoltaic cells work 10 to 40 times more efficient than currently used technology.

With a development like this being perfected, the aviation industry could receive a massive overhaul in the way airplanes are fuelled!

[CSMonitor]