Will solar planes take off? Daring pilots take experimental flight from Switzerland to Morocco to prove technology works
By EDDIE WRENN
An experimental solar-powered airplane has taken off from Switzerland, aiming to fly 1,554 miles to the Moroccan capital of Rabat and prove the capabilities of flying by the sun.
Pilot Andre Borschberg took off this morning, flying the first part of the leg to Madrid, Spain, and then he will hand over the controls of the single-seater plane – which as 12,000 solar cells on the plane’s massive 100ft wings – to co-pilot Bertrand Piccard.
If today’s experiment is a success, it will go a long way to proving the capabilities of solar flight.
The experimental aircraft ‘Solar Impulse’ takes off for its first intercontinental flight to Morocco from the airbase in Payerne, Switzerland
Giant: The Solar Impulse has 12,000 solar cells built into its 64-metre wings – the plane has already proved it can fly overnight with power gained during the day
Looking up: Solar Impulse founder and pilot Andre Borschberg checks out the sky before take-off
It’s not all plain flying though – fog on the runaway at its home base in Payerne, Switzerland, delayed the take-off by two hours, demonstrating how susceptible the prototype single-seater aircraft, which has a 207-foot (63 metre) wingspan, is to adverse weather.
Borschberg said: ‘We can’t fly into clouds because it was not designed for that.’
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Just in case things go disastrously wrong, Borschberg has a parachute inside his tiny cabin that he hopes never to use.
‘When you take an umbrella it never rains,’ he joked in a satellite call with The Associated Press.
Co-pilot Piccard’s love of adventure in his genes.
Piccard’s father was Jacques Piccard, the underseas explorer, and his grandfather was the balloonist Auguste Piccard. Presumably a future descendant will end up piloting Star Trek’s USS Enterprise.
Time for a quick charge: Pilot Andre Borschberg sails across the sun as he heads to Spain
Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter (left) wishes all the best to Andre Borschberg (seated) and Bertrand Piccard (right) before the plane heads to the skies. The solar panels can be seen on the top of the plane
Adventurers: Borschberg has long been an advocate of solar flying, as has Piccard, who has a rich heritage of voyage in his blood
Before landing in Madrid in the early hours of Friday, Borschberg will face other challenges, including having to overfly the Pyrenees mountains that separate France and Spain.
His colleague Bertrand Piccard will then take the helm of the aircraft for the second stretch of its 2,500-kilometer (1,554-mile) journey to the Moroccan capital Rabat.
Piccard will have to cross the windy Straits of Gibraltar from Europe to Africa.
Fly by night: The Solar Impulse aircraft is pulled out of the hangar before take off at Payerne airport this morning
The Solar Impulse project eventually aims to circumnavigate the world purely by the power of the sun
The team has been invited to Morocco by the country’s King Mohammed VI to showcase the cutting edge of solar technology.
Morocco is about to start construction on a massive solar energy plant at Ouarzazate. The plant will form part of a country-wide solar energy grid with a capacity of 2000 megawatts by 2020.
The mission is described as the final dress rehearsal for a round-the-world flight with a new and improved aircraft in 2014. That trip will include stops in the United States, said Borschberg.
In 2010, Borschberg flew non-stop for 26-hour to demonstrate that the 12,000 solar cells attached to the aircraft can soak up enough sunlight to keep the plane airborne through the night.
A year later, he took Solar Impulse on its first international flight to Belgium and France.
The project began in 2003 and it is estimated to coast about $ 100 million over 10 years
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2149300/Will-solar-planes-Daring-pilots-experimental-flight-Switzerland-Morocco-prove-technology-works.html#ixzz1voActisT
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