The plane used as the only energy source of 12,000 solar cells covering its wings, and four electric motors fed from a power 10 horses each. The cells can also recharge the lithium polymer batteries, 400 kg
Caracas, 30/06/2010, Geneva, AFP - Swiss The Solar Impulse aircraft prepares to make historic flight on Thursday, showing the ability of the device, powered only by solar energy to fly at night.
Building
very favorable weather conditions, the registered HB-SIA prototype took off Thursday from the military base of Payerne, in western Switzerland, organizers confirmed Wednesday in a statement.
The plane, which made its maiden flight on April 7 and has made ten more since then, you need a very good time to fly: little wind, so as not to destabilize the appliance of light weight, and abundant sunshine to charge its batteries via solar panels.
As the Swiss Bertrand Piccard, who designed the prototype, this new phase of 25 hours will be used to test the ability of the device to fly day and night.
"The challenge of the XXI sglo no longer go to the moon, because that was done, but moving to a society that gradually get rid of their dependence on fossil fuels," he recently told reporters.
The solar plane is "much more than an aviation adventure, is a technical demonstration of what can contribute to society in terms of new technologies ", Piccard said the adventurer.
The plane, whose wings are the size of an Airbus A340 (63.40 m) but weighing just 1,600 kilos, take off on Thursday morning .
According to estimates, have a sunny weather and a very short night, because it is summer.
The pilot and co-founder of the project, André Borschberg provides stay all day at an altitude of over of 8,500 meters to stored in solar energy batteries fundamental for hours at night, the moment critical.
At that time "will have very little power and will have to decide whether to continue the flight or not," said the Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier, who recently joined the project, along with former NASA pilot Rogers Smith.
"Another challenge is the flight duration and the risk that the driver dozed off" by the fatigue, the astronaut said, noting that the device "requires close attention, not having automatic pilot."
The rider André Borschberg not sleep, have connected various sensors that report their status to team land.
"We are setting very ambitious goals will not necessarily succeed the first," said Bertrand Piccard, the latest member of a dynasty of adventurers.
His grandfather Auguste, who served as the cartoonist Hergé model for the figure of Professor Calculus in the Tintin comic famous, beat in the years 1920-1930 several balloon altitude record. His father Jacques dropped to 10,916 meters deep in the depths of the Marianas Trench.
closely If successful first night flight, the team of Bertrand Piccard will make a device larger that will face the challenge of getting around the world.
Note taken from the website: www.reporte360.com
Note taken from the website: www.reporte360.com
DNA / Aeroblog
0 comments:
Post a Comment