Flying A Solar Powered Plane

Solar Impulse

A plane powered by the sun?

Yes indeed.

It’s called Solar Impulse and Swiss psychiatrist, environmentalist, and adventurer, Bertrand Piccard, plans to fly around the world in it in 2012.  He’s already done it in a hot air balloon– an epic flight completed in 1999.

Piccard, scion of a family of scientists and explorers, is a man of many talents and someone who is passionate about the environment.  He’s developing Solar Impulse as a way of drawing attention to the viability of solar as an alternative to fossil fuels in aviation and also as a symbol of  what we need to do and where we need to go to preserve the planet.

As he puts it:

“Today, human and technical enquiry must go on, with a view to improving the quality of life for humanity. By writing the next pages in the history of aviation with solar energy, as far as a flight around the world without fuel or pollution is concerned, Solar Impulse’s ambition is to contribute in the world of exploration and innovation to the cause of renewable energies. To demonstrate the importance of the new technologies in sustainable development, and of course, once again, to place dream and emotion at the heart of scientific adventure.”

The airplane is designed to fly both day and night without the need for fuel. More than 12,000 solar cells mounted on the wing supply renewable solar energy to the four 10-horsepower electric motors. During the day, the solar panels charge the plane’s lithium polymer batteries, allowing it to fly both day and night.

Piccard and his partner, Andre Borschberg, plan to fly the final version of  the plane  around the world in 20 to 25 days, making various stops to change pilots. At the moment,  the target date is 2012.  It should be quite an event, reminiscent of the exciting flight across the Atlantic by Charles Lindburgh in the early days of aviation.

Solar Impulse is not the first experimental solar aircraft or the only one ever built, but it certainly is one of the most interesting, spearheaded as it is by Piccard who has garnered support from a variety of European commercial backers.

There is NASA’s Helios project and the QinetiQ Zephyr, both unmanned vehicles– plus a number of other solar and electric powered aircraft stretching back to the 1970′s, but nothing as promising or exciting on so many levels as Solar Impulse.  To find out more, check out the website, sign up for the newsletter, and join the friends of  Solar Impulse on Facebook .

Imagine how life would change if commercial jets could be powered by the sun. Think of the fossil fuel not used and the CO2 not emitted.  Think it’s not possible?  Think again.  Fifty years ago anyone who said that man would one day go to the moon was considered crazy.  Solar powered planes are not science fiction and Solar Impulse is definitely a window into the solar technology of the twenty first century.