Solar powered flight impossible? I dunno, I'd say, give it time. A decade or two. Maybe three. "We are on the verge of the perpetual flight," he said. Assuming, of course, that we aren't on the verge of global bankruptcy and irreversible climate change. But forget about high speed trains if that is the case. These Solar Impulse people are heroes to me. Chasing dreams for themselves and all of us. A lot like Orville and Wilbur.
Aircraft completes first solar-powered night flight
Solar plane lands after 26 hours
Thu, Jul 8 2010
By Vincent Fribault
PAYERNE, Switzerland | Thu Jul 8, 2010 2:22pm EDT
(Reuters) - A giant glider-like aircraft has completed the first night flight propelled only by solar energy, organizers said on Thursday.
Solar Impulse, whose wingspan is the same as an Airbus A340, flew 26 hours and 9 minutes, powered only by solar energy stored during the day. It was also the longest and highest flight in the history of solar aviation, organizers said.
Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss president of the project, best known for completing the first round-the-world flight in a hot air balloon in 1999, said the success of the flight showed the potential of renewable energies and clean technology.
"We are on the verge of the perpetual flight," he said.
Jubilant pilot Andre Borschberg told Reuters television: "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."
Borschberg, a former Swiss air force pilot who has flown for 40 years, returned to a hero's welcome at Payerne air base in the northwestern canton of Vaud, where hundreds gathered at dawn to watch the aircraft glide onto the Tarmac at 0700 GMT (3 a.m. EDT).
The carbon-fiber aircraft 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, a statement said.
"The success of this first night flight by a solar-powered plane is crucial for the further course of the Solar Impulse project," it said.
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA, which has 12,000 solar cells built into its 64.3-meter (193-foot) wings, is a prototype for an aircraft that its creators hope will carry out its first circumnavigation of the globe from 2012.
The next milestone will be crossing the Atlantic using a second prototype which goes into construction soon.
Weighing just 1,600 kg (3,500 lb), as much as a medium-sized car, the plane powered by four electric motors is designed to save energy from its solar cells in high-performance batteries.
Sponsors of the project, whose budget is 100 million Swiss francs ($95 million), 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.
First Solar Flight World Records Confirmed
October 29, 2010
redorbit.com
The July flight of a solar-powered plane built in Switzerland officially set a trio of world records, authorities with the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI) confirmed on Friday.
The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne’s (EPFL) Solar Impulse prototype aircraft began its record-setting flight on July 7 and was flown by pilot André Borschberg. During the journey, the Solar Impulse set records for absolute altitude (9,235 meters or 30,298 feet), largest height gain (8,744 meters or 28,688 feet), and longest flight duration (26 hours, 10 minutes, 19 seconds) in the "Solar Powered Airplane" class, the FAI announced in a statement.
"The FAI congratulates André Borschberg and the whole team involved in Solar Impulse on these splendid achievements," officials from the air sports federation added.
According to AFP reports, this marks the first time that records set by an aircraft in the solar-powered category have been officially recognized by the FAI. Spokesperson Marcel Meyer told the news agency that previous records had been claimed, but lacked sufficient evidence to be ratified.
The Solar Impulse project started in 2003 and was championed by Bertrand Piccard, one of the first men to ever complete a non-stop balloon flight around the world. It has a wingspan of approximately 208 feet, weighs roughly 3,500 pounds, and is nearly 72 feet long. It utilizes more than 11,000 solar cells to obtain power during the day, which allows it to charge up its batteries and power the four 10 horsepower electric engines to continue its journey during the evening hours.
"The Solar Impulse is not the first solar airplane imagined by man, but it is certainly the most ambitious. None of its predecessors has ever managed to fly right through the night with a pilot on board," claims the project’s official website. "By writing the next pages in the history of aviation with solar energy, as far as a flight around the world without fuel or pollution is concerned, Solar Impulse’s ambition is to contribute in the world of exploration and innovation to the cause of renewable energies."
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