Engineering news
Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) has landed at Mountain View, California, after completing a 62-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii, propelled solely by energy from the sun.
André Borschberg, chief executive and co-founder, and Bertrand Piccard initiator and chairman, completed the 2,810-mile journey, the ninth leg of 13 in their world tour, and touched down at the Moffett Airfield, where Nasa’s Ames Research Centre and Google’s Planetary Ventures are based.
The two pilots have weathered the flight in a 3.8m3 non-pressurised, unheated cockpit for almost three days and having only 20-minute intermittent naps while airborne.
The aircraft, which can reach up 60mph, weighs just 2,300kg – the same as a standard family car – and is made from carbon fibre. Built into the wing, fuselage and horizontal stabiliser are 17,248 solar cells that charge four lithium batteries, which in turn power the four motors and propellers.
Piccard initiated the venture with Borschberg, intending to fly an aircraft around the world without fuel. The aim is to support and promote ‘concrete actions for sustainability’ and highlight the potential for clean, renewable technologies. Energy developments from the project can be applied to air and ground applications, the proponents say, and have the potential to change industry and society.
Piccard said: “Solar Impulse showcases that today exploration is no longer about conquering new territories, because even the moon has already been conquered, but about exploring new ways to have a better quality of life on earth. It is more than an airplane: it is a concentration of clean technologies, a genuine flying laboratory, and illustrates that solutions exist today to meet the major challenges facing our society.”
Borschberg added: “Solar Impulse is a demonstration of energy efficiency and smart energy management, similar to a flying grid. Just imagine your energy reserves increasing during flight and available day after day. This is what we may be doing in our communities, our cities and our countries. To have a decentralised renewable energy production, using solar, thermal, wind. To use efficient ways to store and manage energy, because the times at which we need it is not necessarily the times at which we produce it.”
The aircraft will continue to New York, Europe or North Africa, Abu Dhabi and end its journey in Muscat.