On May 13, the first fully solar-powered international airplane flight was completed successfully. The aircraft, Solar Impulse HB-SIA, pictured above, took off from Payerne airfield in Switzerland and passed over Luxembourg before landing at Brussels Airport. The flight lasted 12 hours 59 minutes and climbed to an altitude of 12,400 feet, using no fuel and propelled by solar energy alone.
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA is a prototype aircraft, the product of an $88 million project, of which this flight was just one stage. The following are the major milestones for this project:
- Feasibility study at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2003
- Announcement of challenge on 28 November 2003
- Development of the concept in 2004-2006
- Design and manufacturing of the prototype HB-SIA in 2007-2009
- Test flights and first night flight with the prototype in 2010
- Construction of the HB-SIB airplane in 2011
- Missions lasting several days, crossing of the Atlantic and attempt to fly round the world in five stages from 2012.
Interestingly, the makers of the aircraft, Solar Impulse, are not seeking to revolutionize air flight, instead, their mission is "to contribute in the world of exploration and innovation to the cause of renewable energies." In deed, it seems that renewable energy technologies will only leap ahead with projects such as these. The solar power cells used on the Solar Impulse HB-SIA are 16 to 22 percent more efficient and half as thick as compared with technology available in 2003.
Photo Credit: Solar Implulse
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