First Intercontinental Solar Powered Airplane Roundtrip Recorded
The Solar Impulse, a plane that is wholly powered and driven by solar energy recently completed a 6,000 km continental roundtrip journey. It is the first of such a solar powered aircraft to attain such a feat.
It travelled between Europe and Africa and started it journey on the 24th of May, went to Africa and back touching down in Switzerland on the 24th of July. It was not a test to see the speed or how fast it could cover such a roundtrip. Rather, it was specifically structured to test the endurance and reliability of the aircraft. Another key purpose of such a long trip was to generate awareness that ill help the cause of renewable sources of energy.
Founder of Solar Impulse and pilot Bertrand Piccard said they want to use the craft to generate as much awareness as possible and use it as proactively as possible to pursue the implementation of effective renewable energy policies, by governments and agencies alike.
The aircraft’s journey was broken into eight parts and started from Payerne to Morocco and back again. Bertrand and fellow pilot André Borschberg took turns in flying the single cockpit aircraft. They touched down at Madrid, Spain; Rabat, Malta; Ouarzazate, Morocco; Toulouse, France and back to Payerne.
It also managed to handle the region most noted for turbulence and strong winds Ouarzazate, Morocco; without much hitch. Most of its flight was during the day although it took off and even landed at night in quite a few places to avoid thermals which are areas of air turbulence.
The Solar Impulse was originally constructed to show that a solar plane could do both day and night time journeys. And it proved this flying non-stop for 26 hours in 2010. It has now gone on to setting every records imaginable for solar powered aircrafts such as straight distance, free distance and distance along a course.
2012-07-28 19:08:31
Source: http://www.maxupdates.tv/first-intercontinental-solar-powered-airplane-roundtrip-recorded/
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