The Solar Impulse took off for the first time on December 3, 2009 Dübendorf, Switzerland. The aircraft came only a few feet, but for the progenitors of the project launched in 2003 is a new round of the aviation era begins: an aircraft that flies without fuel, without polluting, day and night ... a revolution.
In 2010, the solar achieves a 26-hour flight and demonstrates its ability to store enough energy in its lithium batteries.
His successor, SI2 made its first flight over Switzerland in June 2014. Some 17,000 photovoltaic cells power the four electric motors propeller 17.5 hp. It has the power of a scooter but almost the size of an Airbus A380, 72 meters against 80 the airliner.
In contrast, designed carbon fiber, it weighs only 2,300 kilograms, the weight of a 4 × 4 family.
The pilot Bertrand Piccard has worked a dozen years on the project. He will now attempt to sail around the world on SI2.
"We're going from Abu Dhabi, through India and China, or the stages of 24 hours of flight time: We will then make the leap to Hawaii and the US then we will cross the Atlantic to fly south Europe and North Africa. We will have one last long flight back to perform for Abu Dhabi and close the loop of this round the world. "
The figures in this adventure speak for themselves: 35 000 km, 25-day flight, at an altitude of 8500 meters and 1500 the day the night, in a non-Pressurized cockpit. A single pilot for five days and five nights.
A physical test for the drivers, yet the Solar Impulse is not a sporting adventure and remains a technological feat to demonstrate that today we are able to halve the energy consumption of the planet.
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