Tag Result For: Solar Impulse

Energy:

Solar-Powered Aircraft Completes First All-Night Flight

By Ryan Deal posted July 16, 2010, 9:46 am | 0

This morning, the Solar Impulse solar-powered aircraft touched down at Payerne air base in Switzerland after its first all-night flight which lasted more that 26 hours. The aircraft, which weighs about 3,500 pounds, reached a maximum speed of 68 knots and a maximum altitude of 8,564 meters above sea level.

This was the first ever all-night flight by a solar-powered aircraft. The energy is collected and stored on 12,000 solar panels on the plane’s wings during the day and is used to power four electric motors. So, what’s next for the Solar Impulse? Circumnavigating the globe in 2010? Maybe.

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Solar Impulse Takes Off For First Time

By Conrad Myers posted April 11, 2010, 10:53 am | 0

The Solar Impulse aircraft has been in development, design, manufacturing and testing for nearly 6 years now. The project is an airplane that can take off, fly and land autonomously, day and night and all while using only solar energy. This is possible of course by using the energy gathered throughout the day to power it through the night, all while using no fuel and creating no pollution.

Just this past week they were able to launch it on its inaugural test flight and successfully flew it for 2 hours. The group behind the project hope to one day be able to circle the globe and see this as a huge first step. There will be a couple more tests flights in the near future.

With the success of the inaugural flight, we can now envision 2 more test flights in order to determine with precision the performance of the airplane. This will assist us in the preparations of a second airplane in which we plan to do an around the world flight.