- 9 March 2015
The aircraft, powered by solar panels, was flown to Abu Dhabi to set a world record circumnavigation flight.
The aircraft Solar Impulse-2 headed east the United Arab Emirates in the direction of Oman.
The plane circled around the Earth difficult route with multiple stops in the next five months.
Piloting one-place car will alternate two Swiss enthusiasts environmentally friendly technologies – Andre Borschberg, who was sitting at the helm in Abu Dhabi, and Bertrand Piccard.
Stop will need to rest, repair and promotion of technology.
Terms of success
“I’m sure we have a special airplane and he will take us across the oceans, “- said before takeoff Borschberg in an interview with BBC BBC.
The predecessor of the current car, Solar Impulse-1, set a number of world records, including flight across the North American continent in 2013 year.
However, the journey around the Earth has been more ambitious goal, and for that we had to build the plane even larger.
Wingspan Solar Impulse-2 is 72 meters – it’s more than that Boeing-747.
In this case, it weighs only 2.3 tons. Low weight – one of the conditions for the success of the expedition.
The second condition – is the performance and reliability of 17,000 solar cells on the upper surface of the wings, as well as lithium-ion batteries, a rechargeable battery life to fly at night.
This is especially important for flights across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, which will last for several days without landing.
No Sleep
Pilots almost all the time have to go without sleep – they will only be able to doze off for 20 minutes, as do lone sailors.
The problem complicated by the need to stay all the time in the cabin size of only 3.8 cubic meters, which is not much larger than a phone booth.
Borschberg says he will allow to sustain these loads yoga. Picard hopes for self-hypnosis. “But my passion and I, too, would support”, – he added.
“I was born 16 years ago, a dream to fly around the world without fuel in a single solar energy. And now we are about to do it. I looking forward to, when stranded in the cabin, “- said Picard.
Aviators support well-trained team of engineers. Mission Control Center is located in Monaco, but a group of engineers will follow the plane everywhere. They have a mobile hangar at the time of parking.
The success of Solar Impulse-2 is not guaranteed. Computer models suggest that flights over the ocean are possible, but only under favorable weather conditions.
This means that it is possible, the team will have to wait weeks for good weather on the ground.
If the aircraft can not fly across the Pacific or Atlantic, the pilot catapulted and will swim in the ocean with the help of equipment to survive until his passing ship will pick up.
Andre Borschberg – an engineer and a military pilot, but his fortune he made on Internet technologies.
Bertrand Piccard is known for his exploits on the field of aeronautics. In 1999 he made the first nonstop flight around the earth in a balloon.
He is the son of Jacques Picard, the first in 1960, descended to the bottom of the Mariana Trench – the deepest point of the oceans.
A Auguste Piccard his grandfather in 1931, first climbed by a balloon into the stratosphere.
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