The highly publicized, first-ever, solar-powered, manned flight around the world undertaken in the Solar Impulse 2 has just begun its multi-leg navigation of the North American continent across the United States. On May 2, the plane took off from San Francisco, California and headed for Phoenix, Arizona, some 720 miles (1,159 km) away.
The Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) team has two pilots, Swiss aviators Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, who alternate time in the single-pilot cockpit. The aircraft lifted off from San Francisco at 05:03 PDT local time (12:03 UTC) with Borschberg at the helm, expecting to arrive in Phoenix 16 hours and 23 minutes later.
This epic flight originated March 9, 2015, in Abu Dhabi, UAE where Borschberg flew for 13 hours, landing in Muscat, Oman. Next, the team navigated across Asia, visiting India, Myanmar, and China before crossing to Japan. On June 28, 2015, Borschberg then embarked on a four-day, 21-hour, and 52-minute flight from Nagoya, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii, which was also the longest, non-stop solo flight on record.
This grueling leg, with the brutally high tropical temperatures, damaged the aircraft’s batteries to the extent that the team postponed the rest of the flight until April 2016. This break during the winter months allowed the damaged batteries to be properly repaired and the days to become longer with increased sunlight for the solar cells.
During daylight hours, the aircraft ascends to 27,878 feet (8,500 meters) where it stores the maximum amount of solar power in its batteries and assumes its top airspeed of 56 mph (90 km/h). At dusk, it descends to 4,750 feet (1,500 meters), runs on stored energy from the batteries, and slows to about 28 mph (45 km/h) in order to stay aloft more easily.
All totaled, the aircraft will travel nearly 22,000 miles (35,405 km) using no fuel and expel zero emissions. The fuselage is constructed of a light-weight carbon fiber. The aircraft has 17,000 solar cells blanketing the wing and tail spans. The cells supply four charge lithium batteries, which in turn power four electric motors.
Each motor is attached to a two-blade propeller that maintains 525 revolutions per minute. The entire system achieves an impressive, record-setting, 94-percent efficiency rate. At a massive 360 feet (110 meters) long, the wingspan is 236 feet (72 meters), which is wider than the Boeing 747. The aircraft is built ten times lighter that the lightest glider and weighs just a mere 5,070 pounds (2,300 kg), which is comparable to a small van.
So far, these are the world records set by Si2:
Flight time: 117:52 hours
Maximum altitude: 28,000 feet (8,634 meters)
Flight plan distance: 4,481 miles (7,212 km)
The journey is intended to promote the use of clean technologies and demonstrate that the impossible is achievable. On the official website, www.solarimpulse.com, the message is clear:
“…everybody could use the plane’s technologies on the ground to halve our world’s energy consumption, save natural resources and improve our quality of life. This message is being spread by the pilots to the general public, students, key decision-makers and entrepreneurs all over the world.”
From Phoenix, the plane will fly to New York City – with possibly an additional stop or two along the way – before continuing across the Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, and back to Abu Dhabi.
For updates on this story, The UAS Blog will have latest developments.
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Mitch Launius
Instructor Pilot for 30 West IP
Mitch is the CEO of 30 West IP where he is also an instructor providing pilot training on international procedures. With an illustrious career of over 34 years in the cockpit, Mitch has acquired over 13,000 hours of flight time flying worldwide, with over 9,000 hours of this in Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. He is an experienced safety officer and was also an IS-BAO project manager for a fortune 500 flight department. He has presented on Safety and Operations topics at the NBAA International Operators Conference and the Canadian Business Aviation Association Convention and is currently on the NBAA International Operators Committee and serves as the North Atlantic Regional Lead. Mitch is also a member of an FAA working group on General Aviation International Authorizations and Tabletop Exercises (GIATE). He was recently selected to represent IBAC as a member of the ICAO Personal Training and Licensing Panel (PTLP) and was also recently named as a 2020 recipient of the NBAA Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award for his contribution to the business aviation community.
Henry ‘Duke’ LeDuc
Director Of Operations, Americas, UAS International Trip Support
Duke has been a dearly respected member of UAS Americas team and the UAS global family for more than five years. A safety-oriented, FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, he oversees all of the operations of the elite UAS Operations Team. With twenty-five years of experience in aviation overall with more than fifteen years of experience in international flight planning and VVIP trip coordination, he is responsible for the development of the dispatch training program and involved in the strategic development of UAS Americas. With a myriad of rich aviation experience behind him, he has extensive experience in worldwide operations with both corporate and charter environments, including seven years as Operations/Dispatch Manager in an industry-leading, Fortune 500, IS-BAO Stage III Certified corporate flight department. Duke is frequently asked shares his knowledge at major industry events and is currently serving on the NBAA’s International Operators Conference (IOC) Planning Committee.
Dudley King
President and Founder, FlightBridge
Dudley is the Founder and President of FlightBridge, which he established in 2011 and has been focused on technology solutions for the private aviation industry since 2006. Since he graduated from Dartmouth in 1988, he has worked with an array of companies listed anywhere from VentureWire to the Fortune 100. A rare blend of executive, entrepreneur, and consultant, Dudley’s executive roles have included acting CIO positions for several companies and tech advisory services to CEOs trying to rebuild their technology organizations or looking for an external, professional point of view. Highly skilled at deeply understanding his customer’s business challenges and drawing from a long and varied experience in information technology services, Dudley excels at designing technology solutions to solve their problems.
Dr. Paulo Alves
Global Medical Director, Aviation Health, Medaire
Paulo has extensive experience in medical advisory in the aviation industry. As a cardiologist, he provides technical guidance and analysis for MedAire’s MedLink medical advisory service and is MedAire’s liaison with civil aviation regulators and industry associations. Paulo worked with Varig Brazilian Airlines for 23 years, 10 of which were spent as General Medical Manager. A member of the MedAire Medical Advisory Board, Paulo is also President of the Ibero-American Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the International Academy of Aerospace Medicine, a member of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Safety Committee, a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), and a Fellow of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. Throughout his illustrious career, Paulo has held industry leadership roles including Chairperson of the AsMA’s Air Transport Medicine Committee, President of the Airlines Medical Directors Association, President of the Brazilian Society of Aerospace Medicine and was a member of the IATA Medical Advisory Group from 2002 to 2006.
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