photo by Deutsche Bank AG (Flickr Creative Commons)
I recently wrote about lightweight manned electric airplanes making groundbreaking 2 and 3-hour flights. As impressive as this may sound, a Swiss solar-powered plane has just demolished these achievements by a ‘comfortable’ margin of 23 hours.
On Thursday morning a former jet pilot in Switzerland’s air force successfully landed Solar Impulse, a four engine solar aircraft, near the Swiss capital of Bern. The landing followed an incredible 26-hour long flight; the longest and highest – at 8,700m or 28,543ft – ever recorded solar-powered airplane flight.
From a BBC News report:
The plane has 12,000 solar cells arranged on its wingspan which collected enough energy to power the plane for the flight.
The Solar Impulse’s solar cells charged its batteries enough to power the plane through the night, with three hours to spare.
Though the plane’s speed is quite slow – max 68 knots (78mph/128kph) with an average of 23 knots (26.5mph/42.5kph) the project’s leaders see the technology as almost limitless.
From a Reuters report:
We are on the verge of perpetual flight
–Bertrand Piccard, Swiss president of the Solar Impulse project
Watch this video report of the historic solar flight from AFP:
Graham Land
