Flying in the night sky, a giant glider like plane completed a historic flight lasting 26 hours and 9 minutes. It was the longest and highest flight in the history of solar aviation. The Solar Impulse was powered only by the solar energy it managed to store up during the day.
The flight could be a watershed moment as it shows what can be achieved with solar technology and the potential that continues to progress day by day. The success of the flight also augurs well for continuation of efforts on similar projects.
Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss president of the project, and also the first man to circumnavigate the world in a balloon, said –
“We are on the verge of the perpetual flight.”
Solar Impulse has a wingspan that’s nearly equal to that of an Airbus A340. It has 12,000 solar cells built into its 64.3-meter (193-foot) wings. The plane made up of composite carbon fiber weighs as little as a medium sized car and is powered by four motors. It reached a maximum speed of 68 knots (ground speed), an average speed of 23 knots and a maximum altitude of 8,564 meters above sea level.
This is the first prototype of the plane. The next mission on another new prototype will attempt to cross the Atlantic. The final goal remains to fly around the globe slated for 2012.
The project is sponsored with budget is 100 million Swiss francs ($95 million). Sponsors include Belgian chemicals company Solvay SA, Swiss watchmaker Omega, part of the Swatch group, and German banking giant Deutsche Bank. France’s Altran is the project’s engineering partner.
Hundreds thronged to the Payerne air base in the northwestern canton of Vaud (Switzerland) as the plane glided in. Pioneering pilot Andre Borschberg was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of onlookers and he told Reuters –
“It was unbelievable, success better than we expected. We almost thought to make it longer, but … we demonstrated what we wanted to demonstrate so they made me come back, so here I am.”
The success augurs well for the future of all solar flight.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
