Successful Solar Impulse Flight

Solar Impulse successfully completes a 24-hour flight

We’ve been closely watching the historic 24-hour Solar Impulse flight this week.  The solar-powered aircraft took off Wednesday morning from Geneva, Switzerland with hopes to achieve the first overnight flight by this type of experimental plane.  As supporters watched, questions lingered:

• Would the solo pilot, Andre Borschberg, be able to stay alert for a continuous 24 hours while manning the Solar Impulse?
• What would happen when the sun dipped below the curvature of the earth, leaving the solar plane in darkness?
• Could the flight of the Solar Impulse herald in a new beginning for other solar plane rides?

With all these questions hanging in the balance, history was made with a successful Solar Impulse flight!  The plane touched down at 9:00 a.m. local time on Thursday this week (26 hours after take-off), and into the history books for posterity.

The leader of the project, eccentric adventurer Bertrand Piccard, greeted the Solar Impulse when it landed.  He expressed his enthusiasm on Solar Impulse TV:

“It’s a night that lasted for seven years… we’ve been working on the project together with Andre, together with this incredible technical team, engineers, IT people, communication people, our partners…this is the result of so much work, so much dream and so much hope.”

The Solar Impulse is an experimental plane that uses 12,000 solar panels covering its 64-meter wingspan.  Energy is collected from sunlight and used to power the small engines on the plane.  Excess solar energy is stored in batteries, allowing the plane to continue flying overnight.

With this successful flight behind it, the Solar Impulse team has big plans for the future.  Over the next 2 years, a larger solar plane will be developed that can cross the Atlantic, or even circumnavigate the globe!

Could we be at the cusp of efficient, safe solar travel?  Piccard and his team hope the answer is a resounding yes!

Tags: aviation, betrand piccard, experimental plane, solar impulse, solar plane, solar powered aircraft