Solar Airplane Completes Maiden Voyage
Solar Impulse, a prototype of an airplane designed to fly around the world using only solar power, made its first real flight today. As the sun shone down on the Swiss countryside an aircraft powered by 12,000 solar cells flew for 87 minutes to an altitude of nearly 4,000 feet.
Solar Impulse program founder Bertrand Piccard called the inaugural flight a crucial step toward fulfilling his goal of circumnavigating the globe in such an unusual aircraft. In a statement from the Solar Impulse team, Piccard said he was relieved to have the first flight completed after seven years of hard work.
This first mission was the most risky phase of the entire project, Piccard said. Eighty-seven minutes of intense emotion after seven years of research, testing and perseverance. Never has an airplane as large and light ever flown before!
The aircraft, known by its identifier HB-SIA, has a wingspan of a jumbo jet yet weighs the same as an average sedan. It made a flea hop, as the team called it, back in December when it lifted about three feet off the runway and flew less than a quarter mile. Today s flight demonstrates that the airplane can not only fly, it can do so for an extended period at altitudes high enough for basic flight testing.
This first flight was for me a very intense moment, test pilot Markus Scherdel said after emerging from the solar airplane s podlike cockpit.
During the flight, HB-SIA lifted off at just under 30 mph and a relatively short takeoff run. The four 10-horsepower electric motors are expected to deliver enough power for a cruise speed of around 40 to 45 mph. No, Solar Impulse won t set any speed records.
Scherdel said the first flight was a familiarization flight for he and the team.
The execution of these various maneuvers (turns, simulating the approach phase) was designed to get a feel for the aircraft and verify it s controllable, Scherdel said. Despite the plane s immense size and light weight, the team found the plane met their expectations.
The wingspan of HB-SIA is 208 feet, that s about 10 feet more than Boeing s 787 Dreamliner. But the airplane only weighs 3,500 pounds loaded for flight, about 499,000 pounds less than the 787.
After more flight testing with the sun powering HB-SIA, the Solar Impulse team hopes to perform night testing later this year. During those flights, the team will examine the viability of the schedule they plan to use for the around-the-world flight. The plan is to climb to higher altitudes during the day, and trade that altitude for airspeed, supplemented with battery power, to continue flying during the night. They expect to fly 36-hour shifts.
Piccard says the many years of work paid off today, but the work is only beginning.
We still have a long way to go until the night flights and an even longer way before flying round the world, but today, thanks to the extraordinary work of an entire team, an essential step towards achieving our vision has been taken, Piccard said in the statement from the team.
The around-the-world flight is scheduled to take place in 2012 with an updated version of HB-SIA. The flight will take place in several stages with pilots alternating regularly and a team on the ground keeping a careful eye on weather for the delicate aircraft.
