PROJECT SOLAR IMPULSE first airplane ever to fly day and night without fuel or polluting emissions Manufactured at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,Lausanne The plane first flew a whole diurnal solar cycle,which included nine hours of night flying,in a total 26-hour flight in July 2010 In 2012,it flew from Switzerland to Spain and Morocco,before the coast-to-coast US flight Piloted by Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg. Bertrand Piccard comes from a famous familyhis grandfather Auguste Piccard travelled to an altitude of 16,940 m in a balloon. Piccards father Jacques Piccard was the first person to explore the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. THE PLANE HB-SIA is a single-seater monoplane. It can remain airborne up to 36 hours. Made by a team of nearly 80 engineers,technicians and mission controllers,its a $130 million project and it was 10 years in the making HB-SIA took 45 days to fly from the West Coast to the East in the US and flew nearly 1600 km. (With two alternating pilots) HB-SIAs wingspan is 72 mthat of an Airbus Weighs 2,400 kgsame as a mid-sized car Its average speed is 70 kmph,takes off at 44 kmph. Maximum cruising altitude 8,500 m Its covered in 12,000 ultra-thin solar cells. The 12,000 photovoltaic cells of 145 micron monocrystalline silicon combine lightness and efficiency How does it fly by night? Solar Impulse cant stay at its maximum altitude for long. After sunset,the aircraft shuts off its electrical reserves including the solar generator. It relies on its potential energy. The plane loses altitude slowly,soaring along at a glide ratio of 40 to 1,turning from a plane into a high-performance glider. By the time the sun rises,the Solar Impulse would have sunk to 10,000 to 15,000 ft,but still flying. Incidentally,on July 8,2012,André Borschberg piloted an HB-SIA that became the first solar plane to complete a night flight OTHER SOLAR INNOVATIONS the Solar boat MS Türanor SolarPlanet *Worlds largest solar boat at 102 feet * Maximum engine power120 KW and maximum cruising speed - 8 knots * Number of days to circumnavigate the world in 2012: 585 w It took eight years to collect funds to build the boat,it cost $16 million and 64,000 hours of construction * Completed its journey on May 6,2012,when it cruised into Port Hercules,Monaco,visited 28 countries,travelled 50,000 km
