You’ve probably heard about the ambitious, almost impossible-sounding project to fly a solar-powered plane around the world without refueling. But now, about a year before the voyage is scheduled to begin, you get your first look at the plane itself. It’s unlike any plane you’ve seen before.
Methods for staying awake during a long haul get pretty tired. Seriously, you can only slap yourself in the face so many times. So when Bertrand Piccard needed to figure out how to stay alert during a 72-hour-long test in a flight simulator this week, he got creative.
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It took two months for Solar Impulse, the little solar-powered plane that could, to make it from Washington state to New York’s JFK airport. Two months of 45mph speeds, multiple stopovers, and cursing at clouds. But after surviving all that time and distance, the flight’s triumphant finale was cut short by a torn wing.
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We have read a whole lot about Solar Impulse, the solar powered airplane from Switzerland, in the past, where it certainly had its fair share of adventures across the pond. Well, this coming May 3rd (which is tomorrow, by the way), Solar Impulse will take off from the city by the bay, San Francisco with Bertrand Piccard in the single seater cockpit, in an attempt to complete the first leg of its coast-to-coast flights across the USA. Its first stop will be Phoenix, Arizona, and this will be a historical flight since it marks the first time that a solar airplane which is capable of flying whether the sun or moon is up sans fuel will make an attempt to jet-set across the breadth of the great country that we call home.
Not only that, there is a secondary objective to this particular journey that would mark the occasion to launch an initiative that is known as “Clean Generation”, as part of an effort to gather worldwide support for the adoption of clean technologies. To be able to achieve its ambition of coast-to-coast flight sans refueling, whether at night or in a day, would give a boost to supporters of clean technology, considering its energy efficiency and use of renewable energy.
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Solar Impulse, the famous solar-powered airplane, is getting ready for its next ambitious mission. After proving to the world, against all odds, that the 100 percent solar-powered aircraft can fly during the day and night without fuel for more than 24 hours, the next challenge is to fly around the world. The Solar Impulse is not the first solar airplane, however, it is the first solar plane to fly at night time , thanks to the thousands of solar cells on its wings that supply power to its batteries.
In an interview with CBS, Bertrand Piccard, the famous Swiss balloonist who co-piloted the plane with André Borschberg, announced the plan for a round-the-world flight by year 2015. Piccard says that the flight is expected to take 20 days and 20 nights and that he is ready for the historic event. “Everything you do, you have to do it because you are well-prepared and absolutely calm inside yourself,” Piccard said.
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4,000 miles later, the odyssey of solar-powered Solar Impulse is finally over as it returned home to where the adventure began – right in neutral Switzerland. This is an epic journey for the record, where it is the first of its kind to complete a solar-powered intercontinental round-trip air journey. Making its way between Europe and Africa, the Solar Impulse experimental solar airplane finally touched down in Payerne, Switzerland at 8:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. ET) earlier this morning.
The entire odyssey took two months to complete – on May 24th to be exact. The whole idea of this particular exercise is not to figure out just how fast this plane is able to fly through the cross-continental trip and back again, but rather, to assess the endurance and reliability of its engineering as a whole. Not only that, I am quite sure that this particular project has done its bit to raise public awareness concerning energy issues.
The total flight time for Tuesday’s 382-mile (615-kilometer) trip from Toulouse, France, to Payerne clocked up 13 hours and 29 minutes, sporting an average air speed of 28 mph (46 kilometers per hour).
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Photo Courtesy of Solar Impulse – Returning Flight Rabat-Madrid
The Solar Impulse, a plane that runs completely on renewable energy thanks to its solar panels on its wings, has just successfully made the flight from Rabat, Morocco to Madrid, Spain. The flight lasted nearly 17 hours.
André Borschberg, CEO and Founder of Solar Impulse, made a statement on the flight: “Bertrand did a wonderful flight and the aircraft’s technology has once again proven its reliability and its energy savings efficiency. This flight has taught us even more about the aircraft allowing us to fly through winds superior to the speed of the airplane.”
They originally chose to fly to Morocco based on the country’s commitment to renewable energy, very similar to that of Spain’s. Before heading home to Switzerland, there will be a few days of official events organized by Spanish authorities as well as by their official partners. We’ll keep you updated on Solar Impulse’s last flight and you can stay updated yourself via their Facebook/Twitter page or by their smartphone app called “Solar Impulse Inventing the Future” available on the Apple App store and Google Play.
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