US solar plane’s historic journey
AN AEROPLANE powered entirely by the sun landed in Washington yesterday as part of a journey across the US intended to boost support for clean energy technologies.
The Solar Impulse will remain in the US capital until it takes off for New York in early July for the last leg of its historic trip, organisers said.
If the spindly experimental aircraft completes the journey as planned, it will be the first solar-powered plane capable of operating day and night to fly across the US.
“It proves the reliability and potential of clean technologies, and this is crucial in pushing our message forward,” Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard said. Piccard founded the Solar Impulse project with fellow pilot Andre Borschberg.
With the wingspan of a jumbo jet and the weight of a small car, the Solar Impulse is a test model for a more advanced aircraft the team plans to build to fly around the world in 2015. The plane completed the first leg of the journey from San Francisco to Phoenix in early May and then flew later from Phoenix to Dallas. In early June it flew from Dallas to St Louis.
Yesterday it flew from St Louis to Washington in nearly 30 hours, over two days.
The project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of $112-million (R1.1-billion). It has involved engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.
The aircraft is propelled by energy collected from 12 000 solar cells in its wings that simultaneously recharge batteries for night use. – Reuters