Swiss Solar Plane: Solar Impulse Flew Its First International Flight

We all have heard about green vehicles, automobiles, green technology, green this and green that. But have you ever heard of a green air craft? Yes that is true now. Green will now be the color of aircrafts too. A few days back on May 2, this year a solar powered aircraft named ‘Solar Impulse’, flew from Swiss military airfield at Payerne to Brussels.

#-Link-Snipped-#The plane is made extremely light weight. Very minute care is taken regarding those materials used to construct this aircraft. It is so because; the plane is solely to fly on solar energy generated by the batteries. In case the plane would have become too much bulky then it would have been difficult to use batteries for a long duration. The plane being light weight solves this problem. The batteries can easily supply for a longer duration of time. There are about 12, 000 Photovoltaic cells in this aircraft. The weight is just 1600Kg. The wing span is very long i.e.; 63.4 meters the height is kept 6.4 meters and length is 21.85 meters. From its massive wings it is same in length as that of Airbus 340 or a Boeing 777, yet is elegant and light weight. The solar cells are fitted on its entire wing span on upper side while it is also powered by Lithium ion batteries.

Regarding this aircraft, the solar impulse team says, “The question of energy defines the entire project. At midday, each square meter of land surface, in the form of light energy, receives the equivalent of 1000 watts, or 1.3 horsepower of light power. Over 24 hours, this averages out at just 250W/m². With 200m² of photovoltaic cells and a 12 % total efficiency of the propulsion chain, the plane’s motors achieve an average power of no more than 8 HP or 6kW – roughly the amount of power the Wright brothers had a available to them in 1903 when they made their first powered flight. And it is with that energy, optimized from the solar panel to the propeller, that Solar Impulse is striving to fly day and night without fuel!”

This aircraft will be kept on display from May 23-29. It will also be a center of attraction in Paris air show which is being held next month in June. The major sponsor of this project was Duetsche bank AG which gave 110 million-Swiss francs.

The project was actually the concept of pilot Andre Borschberg and Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard. Last year the same aircraft was flown for a continuous 26 hours. This international flight was nothing less than a big step. It was thus proved that these aircrafts can replace today’s air carriers in future. The other sponsors for this mega project are Swatch group AG (UHR)’s omega brand, Swisscom AG (SCMN), and Belgium based group Solway SA (SOLB).

This indeed is a next step forward in commercial manufacturing of a ‘Zero Fuel Aircraft’. Though it is a single seat aircraft today, after a thorough research in correct direction would finally make way for a cheaper, safer and commercial air travel. In today’s age of global warming such technologies are actually paving way for a smooth transition from carbon based fuels to renewable/ harmless energy.

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Source: Solar Impulse