Solar Impulse completes first night flight
The composites-intensive Solar Impulse HB-SIA solar-powered airplane completed a 26-hour flight, demonstrating the plane's ability to remain aloft on stored solar energy, even in the night sky. Next: Transatlantic and then around the world flight.
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA solar-powered airplane, with André Borschberg at its controls, successfully landed on July 8 at 9:00 am, completing the first ever night flight powered entirely by solar energy.
For more than 26 hours, André Borschberg piloted the carbon-fiber composite aircraft with its 64m/210-ft wingspan. The plane was up in the air July 7 for the whole day, then through the entire night, flying solely on solar energy. This flight reportedly is the longest and highest in the history of solar aviation
"I've been a pilot for 40 years now, but this flight has been the most incredible one of my flying career," said Borschberg, CEO and co-founder of the Solar Impulse project. "Just sitting there and watching the battery charge level rise and rise thanks to the sun. And then that suspense, not knowing whether we were going to manage to stay up in the air the whole night. And finally the joy of seeing the sun rise and feeling the energy beginning to circulate in the solar panels again!”
Now that the HB-SIA’s ability to remain flying at night using solar energy stored during the day has been proved, the program can start pushing the human and technological limits further. The next important milestones for Solar Impulse will be the crossing the Atlantic and the around the world flight, using a second prototype that goes into construction this summer.
Said Bertrand Piccard, initiator and president of the project, when the Solar Impulse HB-SIA touched down: “This is a crucial step forward, it gives full credibility to the speeches we hold since years about renewable energies and clean techs and allows us now to get closer to the perpetual flight without using a drop of fuel!”
“Such success would not have been possible without all the hard work put in by an exceptional team," said Claude Nicollier, head of the Solar Impulse test flight program.
Solar Impulse is a product of 50 specialists from six countries, based in Dübendorf and Lausanne, Switzerland. Major partners include Solvay, Omega the Deutsche Bank.
Flight report:
Take-off time: July 7, 2010, 6:51 am
Landing time: July 8, 2010, 9:00 am
Flight duration: 26 hours, 9 minutes
Maximum speed: 68 knots (ground speed)
Average speed: 23 knots
Maximum altitude: 8,564m/28,097 ft (above sea-level)
