- March 10, 2015
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Plane on solar-powered “Solar Impulse-2″ (Solar Impulse 2) began the second phase of his round the world flight. He took off after a brief stop for the night at the airport in Muscat in Oman and headed in the direction of Ahmedabad in India across the Arabian Sea.
At the helm of this time is Bertrand Piccard, André Borschberg replaced, who piloted the aircraft’s first flight from Abu Dhabi to Muscat on Monday.
During the second flight – 1465 km, it will take about 16 hours. Live broadcast from the airplane is conducted at the project site.
It is expected that solar plane take five months to complete the trip around the world.
The project “Solar Impulse” has set a number of world records in the category of flight on solar energy, having carried out including the first such flight across the entire territory of the United States in 2013.
The experience of night flights will be particularly valuable for the planned flight over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
The low speed of the aircraft means that every stage of these non-stop flights will take several days and nights.
The pilot is permitted only short periods of sleep – no more than 20 minutes – just like sleeping sailors single during the circumnavigation.
The pilots also have to get used to the cramped cockpit in 3.8 cubic meters – not much more than a phone booth.
The glorious traditions Picard
Andre Borschberg has engineering education, in the past it was a military pilot, and then became an expert in the field of Internet technology.
Bertrand Piccard is known for its hot air balloon rides. Together with Brian Jones, he made the first non-stop round the world flight in a balloon “Breitling Orbiter 3″ in 1999.
Bertrand belongs to the well-known Picard family – his father Jacques Piccard reached in the first bathyscaphe “Trieste” bottom Mary Depression in 1960. And his grandfather Auguste Piccard first rose into the stratosphere in a balloon in 1931.
Solar Revolution – Roger Harrabin, BBC BBC
We are contemporaries historical moment – it was clear that by 2050 solar energy will be the main source of electricity for the whole world.
In recent years, the price of solar cells decreased by 70%, and in the coming decade, it will be reduced even by half.
According to experts if the price of fossil fuels will remain, in most countries of the world, solar energy will become more profitable than gas before 2020.
In the US, the number of jobs in the solar industry is already higher than that of the coal mining industry.
In the UK, solar energy will be able to compete on cost with the wind in the next year and a half, and gas – in the near future.
Policy of generous government subsidies and tax relief has led to an influx of venture capital in this area and has created a huge market that try to exploit the Chinese manufacturers.
Currently, in many countries, intensive study of more effective methods of storage of solar energy, as well as the supply of manufactured solar power energy in the public power supply.
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