Industryweek 2612 Solarimpulse2

Sun-Powered Plane Returns Home After Historic Flight

July 25, 2012
The high-tech aircraft was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of supporters at Payerne Airport in western Switzerland two months after it took off from there on May 24 on a journey that took it from Europe to North Africa and back. The aircraft, which has the wingspan of a large airliner but weighs no more than a saloon car, is fitted with 12,000 solar cells feeding four electric engines.

The Swiss sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse landed back home in Switzerland late Tuesday after completing the final leg of its historic transcontinental flight.

The high-tech aircraft was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of supporters at Payerne Airport in western Switzerland two months after it took off from there on May 24 on a journey that took it from Europe to North Africa and back.

"This was an extraordinary adventure, not only because of what was achieved with this plane ... but also because of the solid team," Andre Borschberg, one of the co-founders of the project, said in a statement.

Earlier Tuesday, pilot Bertrand Piccard took the plane up into a cloudless sky from an airfield near Toulouse, France, where it had waited for a week for the right weather conditions to complete a journey that took it to Spain, Morocco and back again to Switzerland.

The aircraft, which has the wingspan of a large airliner but weighs no more than a saloon car, is fitted with 12,000 solar cells feeding four electric engines.

With the final stage completed, the 3,700-mile journey became the longest to date for the aircraft after an inaugural flight to Paris and Brussels last year.

The flight was transmitted live on www.solarimpulse.com, the website of the project run by Piccard, an explorer who has traveled around the world in a hot-air balloon, and fellow pilot Borschberg, who took turns to fly the plane on its latest journey.

The trip was intended as a rehearsal for a round-the-world flight planned for 2014 in an updated version of the plane.

The organizers said the Solar Impulse now has demonstrated the reliability of the technology it uses as well as its energy efficiency.

Solar Impulse made history in July 2010 when it became the first manned plane to fly around the clock on the sun's energy.

It holds the record for the longest flight by a manned solar-powered aeroplane after staying aloft for 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds above Switzerland, also setting a record for altitude by flying at 30,298 feet.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012

Popular Sponsored Recommendations

Electric Vehicles Spark New Opportunities in the Automotive Industry

Dec. 4, 2023
Automakers have increased plans to produce Electric Vehicles to meet customer demand for low emissions. With this radical shift, new opportunities and challenges for the auto ...

Gain a competitive edge with real-world lessons on private 5G networks

Nov. 16, 2023
The use of private networks in manufacturing applications is rapidly growing. In this paper, we present valuable insights and lessons learned from the field with the goal of enhancing...

Shifting Your Business from Products to Service-Based Business Models: Generating Predictable Revenues

Oct. 27, 2023
Executive summary on a recent IndustryWeek-hosted webinar sponsored by SAP

The Power of Customer Journey Mapping

May 30, 2023
Looking to develop your own customer journey map? We surveyed 400 companies nationwide to help explain what makes journey maps an effective decision-making tool, how to use a ...

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of IndustryWeek, create an account today!