Solar Plane to Fly 'Round the World

Submitted by LiveScience Staff

posted: 26 June 2009 12:42 pm ET

 

 

Swiss team has unveiled its model for a solar-powered plane, Solar Impulse HB-SIA. Credit: SolarImpulse

 

The Solar Impulse, unveiled this week, has a wingspan of a Boeing 747 but weighs less than a small car. It is powered entirely by the sun. Adventurer Bertrand Piccard aims to fly an improved version of the craft around the world in 2012, he announced this week. Credit: SolarImpulse

 

 

AP, June 26, 2009 · It has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but weighs less than a small car — and it is powered entirely by the sun.

Adventurer Bertrand Piccard on Friday unveiled the Solar Impulse, which, with its sleek white wings and pink trimming, aims to make history as the prototype for a solar-powered flight around the world.

"Yesterday it was a dream, today it is an airplane, tomorrow it will be an ambassador of renewable energies," said Piccard, who in 1999 co-piloted the first round-the-globe nonstop balloon flight.

The plane will take part in a series of test flights over the next two years, and based on the results of those a new plane will be constructed for the big takeoff, in 2012. In a swank ceremony at a military airfield near Zurich, Piccard and co-pilot Andre Borschberg hugged as the curtain was pulled across to give the public its first glimpse of the plane. Numerous dignitaries were in attendance, including Prince Albert of Monaco and major sponsors.

The budget for the project is $98 million, Piccard said. He and Borschberg said the plane will fly day and night using almost 12,000 solar cells, rechargeable lithium batteries and four electric motors. It will not use an ounce of fuel.

But the maiden flight around the planet will take time.

With the engines providing only 40 horsepower, the plane will fly almost like a scooter in the sky. It will take off at the pedestrian pace of 22 mph, accelerating at altitude to an average flight speed of 44 mph. Unlike the nonstop balloon trip, the solar flight will have to make stops to allow for pilots to switch over and stretch after long periods in the cramped cockpit.

"You can see it's really small," Borschberg said. "Thirty-six hours is already a challenge. It tests your patience."

The plane's circumnavigation will be split up into five stages, with the stopovers also allowing the team to show off the plane. Borschberg said the stages in the air will last up to five days.

A nonstop round-the-world flight will have to wait until batteries can be made lighter so more pilot comfort can be added to the plane. The first test flights will be later this year, with a complete night voyage planned for 2010.

"It will be like the Wright brothers," said the 51-year-old Piccard, who comes from a long line of adventurers. His late father Jacques plunged deeper beneath the ocean than any other man, and grandfather Auguste was the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere. "We will start one meter above the ground, then three meters, then five meters," he said. "When that works, we'll be able to take it to altitude."

One thing a solar plane cannot handle is bad weather. Because the solar panels are needed for day flying and for charging the 400-kilogram lithium batteries that power the plane by night, it relies on sunshine.

"We'll certainly avoid stormy situations," Borschberg said. "We'll avoid rain as well, because you cannot collect energy in this weather. So the challenge for the team will be to find a path that is favorable. We've been training for five years."

Piccard says the plane should also serve as an inspiration for inventors and manufacturers of everyday machines and appliances.

"If an aircraft is able to fly day and night without fuel, propelled solely by solar energy," Piccard said, "let no one come and claim that it is impossible to do the same thing for motor vehicles, heating and air conditioning systems and computers."

 

Walter Bieri

Adventurer Bertrand Piccard speaks during the unveiling of the Solar Impulse HB-SIA on Friday at Duebendorf Airfield in Switzerland. Keystone/AP

 

 

Winfried Rothermel

A model of the Solar Impulse on display in Zurich-Duebendorf, Switzerland, shows the solar cells that cover the wings. AP

 

 

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 현재 우리 인류의 기술력은 정말이지 상상이상으로 발전의 발전을 거듭해 왔고, 이제는 비행기를 태양열로 구동할 수 있을 정도의 기술력까지 갖추게 됐다. 인류의 기술력은 계속해서 발전하고 있고, 그 기술력을 계속해서 바람직하고 긍정적인 방향으로 발전 시켜야 나가야 할 것이다.

 요즘 하이브리드카 같은 친환경 기계들이 차세대 발전 모델로 주목받고 있는 가운데 태양열로 작동하는 비행기에 대한 기사를 발견해 관심을 갖고 보게 됐다. 물론 아직 실용화나 다른 큰 비행기로의 구체적인 실현 방향이 제시된건 아니지만 그리고 또 나쁜 기상조건 가운데에서도 좋은 성능을 발휘하지는 못하는 단계이지만, 에너지를 절약하고 계속해서 친환경적인 동력원을 개발해 낸다는 데 큰 의의를 두고 관심있게 본 기사였다.                                      -differenity