On Friday, May 25, Swiss-powered aircraft Solar Impulse finished the first part of its ambitious attempt at an intercontinental flight without consuming any fuel. The Swiss solar aircraft took off on Thursday from Payerne, Switzerland, heading to Morocco. It landed safely the next day in Madrid, on a planned three-day stopover, where it will change pilots.
The aircraft completed its first international flight from its home country in Switzerland to Brussels. If the new attempt is successful the 1,550-mile flight will be the longest to date for the solar plane.
Pilot Andre Borschberg made the first leg of the journey for the Solar Impulse. The graceful Swiss aircraft weighs roughly as much as a mid-sized car, but its wingspan is powerful enough to match that of a jumbo jet. Borschberg's colleague Bertrand Piccard will take over for the second leg of the journey to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. After successfully completing the first stretch of the journey without using a single drop of fuel, Borschberg got out of the cockpit "smiley and certainly happy to stretch his legs," noted the Solar Impulse Web site.
"The flight went very well and thanks to the team of meteorologists, everything went according to the plan: it was extraordinary," said the pilot, as cited by CNET. "It was incredible to fly alongside the barrier of clouds during most of the flight and not need to hesitate to fly above them. This confirms our confidence in the capacity of solar energy even further."
The solar aircraft has a wingspan of more than 200 feet, which increases its aerodynamic efficiency. Moreover, that impressive wingspan also incorporates more than 12,000 solar panels that soak up the sunlight to power the Solar Impulse plane during the day and charge its lithium polymer batteries to keep it operating at night.
The current intercontinental journey is merely a rehearsal, as there are more ambitious plans in line for Solar Impulse: a round-the-world flight in 2014. The aircraft completed the first leg of the trip with an average ground speed of 89 km/h (55.3 mph), and it took 17 hours, 3 minutes, and 50 seconds.
