*”solar impulse 1 HB-SIA” landing @ ‘brussels airport’*
(after its first international flight)
(13 may 2011)
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*’solar impulse’ is a swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, and also the name of the project’s 2 operational aircraft*
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The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist Bertrand Piccard, who co-piloted Breitling Orbiter 3, the first balloon to circle the world non-stop.
The Solar Impulse project’s goals were to make the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power and to bring attention to clean technologies.
The aircraft is a single-seated monoplane powered by photovoltaic cells; it is capable of taking off under its own power.
The prototype, often referred to as Solar Impulse 1, was designed to remain airborne up to 36 hours.
It conducted its first test flight in December 2009.
In July 2010, it flew an entire diurnal solar cycle, including nearly nine hours of night flying, in a 26-hour flight.
Piccard and Borschberg completed successful solar-powered flights from Switzerland to Spain and then Morocco in 2012, and conducted a multi-stage flight across the US in 2013.
A second aircraft, completed in 2014 and named Solar Impulse 2, carries more solar cells and more powerful motors, among other improvements.
On 9 March 2015, Piccard and Borschberg began to circumnavigate the globe with Solar Impulse 2, departing from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
The aircraft was scheduled to return to Abu Dhabi in August 2015 after a multi-stage journey around the world.
By June 2015, the plane had traversed Asia, and in July 2015, it completed the longest leg of its journey, from Japan to Hawaii.
During that leg, the aircraft’s batteries sustained thermal damage that took months to repair.[14]
Solar Impulse 2 resumed the circumnavigation in April 2016, when it flew to California.[15][16]
It continued across the US until it reached New York City in June 2016.
Later that month, the aircraft crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Spain.
It stopped in Egypt before returning to Abu Dhabi on 26 July 2016, more than 16 months after it had left, completing the approximately 42,000-kilometre (26,000-mile) first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power.
(on 7 july 2010, ‘HB-SIA’ began its first attempt at a 24-hour flight)
(the airplane was flown by ‘André Borschberg’ and took off at 6:51 a.m ‘Central European Summer Time’ (UTC+2) from an airfield in Payerne, ‘Switzerland’)
(it returned for a landing the following morning at 9:00 a.m. local time. The plane reached a maximum altitude of 8,700 m (28,500 ft) during its flight, the highest recorded by a solar-powered plane)
(it was also the world’s first manned 24-hour ‘solar flight’)
(according to the ‘solar impulse’ team, because the 12,000 ‘solar cells’ will recharge the depleted batteries during the day, the single-seat plane can theoretically stay in the air indefinitely)
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(as well as storing energy in its batteries, the aircraft uses height gained during the day as a means of storing potential energy for ‘night flight’)
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👈👈👈☜*“ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT”* ☞ 👉👉👉
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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥