Thursday, July 8, 2010

Solar Plane Land Today


Experimental solar-powered aircraft made its first 24-hour test flight successfully on Thursday, arguing that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the daytime stay in the air all night.

Test gives the Swiss-led project one step closer to its goal of a circle the globe using only solar energy.

Experimental Andre
Borschberg easier Solar Impulse from a clear sky in the morning on the runway airfield Payerne about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south-west of the Swiss capital Bern at exactly 9 am.

Aides rushed to stabilize the pioneering plane as it touched down to his massive 207-foot (63 meter) wingspan does not scratch the ground and overturn the ship.

"We have achieved more than we would like. All very happy", Borschberg told reporters after landing.

Previous flights included a brief "flea hop" and more on-board test earlier this year, but the attempt this week, was described as a "milestone" in the team and comes after 7 years of planning.

The group said that at present it is shown that single aircraft can theoretically stay in the air for an indefinite time spent recharging batteries using 12,000 solar panels, and nothing but the rays of the sun during the day.

But while the team says that this proves that the emissions-free air travel possible, he does not see solar technology replacing conventional jet engines in the near future.

Instead, the overarching purpose of the project is to test and promote new energy technologies.

Project co-founder Bertrand Piccard, himself a record balloonist, said many people were skeptical about renewable energy could be used to take people into the air and keep it there.

"There is a before and after the point of view that people should believe and understand about renewable energy," Piccard said, adding that the flight is proof that new technologies can help to break the society depends on fossil fuels.

The team will build a second solar plane, which will be more effective and have a large booth that for long flights. This plane should be ready for international flights by 2013, said Borschberg.

Round-the-world flight in the final analysis will be done with five stops on the road.

Borschberg took off from the airfield of Payerne shortly before 7 am Wednesday, which allows the plane to absorb the sun as it flew over a gentle loops west of the Jura mountains in the Swiss Alps.

Order plane with thin fuselage and wings Boeing 777 passenger plane managed to climb to 28000 feet (8535 meters) and reached a maximum speed exceeding 75 miles per hour (120 km / h).

Borschberg, 57-year-old former Swiss fighter who was wearing a parachute - just in case - declined to low levels of turbulence and the thermal wind, survived freezing during the night and ended on a test flight with a picture perfect landing on the cries of "Hurrah" and from hundreds of supporters field.

"During the night a long time, so to see the first rays of the rising sun and the sun returns in the morning - it was a gift", Borschberg said after landing.

Borschberg said that the yoga classes in the cockpit, to stimulate blood circulation and use of breathing exercises and the water supply, so as not to fall asleep when the plane has an autopilot.

The former chief pilot of NASA Rogers E. Smith, one of the flight project directors commended the feat of endurance and Borschberg overall success of the mission.

"We ended up with perhaps 20 percent more energy than we are in the most optimistic forecast path," Smith told the AP.

After completion of final testing the plane after landing, Borschberg embraced Piccard to carefully unstrapping themselves from the cockpit tub size, he spent more than 26 hours meeting in.

"When you took it was a different era," said Piccard, who achieved the first nonstop circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon Breitling Orbiter III, in 1999. "You land in a new era, where people understand that renewable energy can do the impossible."

Picard was confident the success of a night flight will provide 20 million Swiss francs ($ 19 million) is still lacking for privately financed projects with a total budget of 100 million francs ($ 95 million).
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