Solar plane sent to daily flight

Today, just a few hours ago, a solar-powered experimental aircraft was sent off for 24 hours. You must admit that it is rare for a modern aircraft to stay in the air for 24 hours without refueling. And in our case, you don’t need fuel either, the plane uses “running” energy, which does not need to be saved. Flight details and design features of the aircraft itself are in the sequel.

So, you know, what is the wingspan of our flying “child of the Sun”? As much as 80 meters. The total number of individual solar cells mounted on the wings and body of the aircraft is 12,000 (!), While the mass of batteries that will accumulate the solar energy collected by the batteries during the day is 500 kilograms.

The solar giant rose “on the wing” shortly before 7 a.m. from the airfield of Paeren, Switzerland. Exactly a day later, he should land there. Initially, the flight took place at an altitude of 3 thousand meters, in order to avoid entering turbulent flows over the Jura mountain range, which is located in the west of the Swiss Alps.

After some time, the plane rose to a height of 8.5 thousand meters, where it will be located most of the flight time. According to the developers, the energy stored by the aircraft during the day should be enough for 7-8 hours of engine operation at night. Our aircraft should have more than enough solar energy, because it is located high above the cloud cover, and the sun from dawn to dusk will supply it with energy.

“The goal of our project at the moment is to fly day and night without the usual fuel. This flight is critical, and will show the reliability and relevance of the entire project, ”says Bertrand Piccard, one of the creators of the aircraft.



Note that the plane is controlled by an experienced pilot Andre Borschberg. Andre will single-handedly decide whether to continue the flight at night, or still not take risks, and land a "green" plane before dark.

It is worth mentioning that the main goal of the entire project is to show that “clean” flights without environmental pollution are possible, and today you can achieve what many generations of scientists have dreamed of - to take energy literally from the air.

Maybe it will take quite a bit of time and we will fly on such aircraft? What do you think, Habrovsk? Who is related to this opportunity?

Oh yes, I almost forgot. Here they wrote about it in more detail (Eng.).

And here they wrote about the first launch of this unique aircraft.

PS The plane has already landed, everything is fine. So we will wait for new achievements and new models of "solar" aircraft.