Solar Impulse has nearly 12,000 solar cells on its 207-foot lightweight carbon-fiber wings, and stored enough energy to allow pilot Andre Borschberg to fly through the night at a maximum altitude of 28,000 feet.
The team aims to get a second, lighter prototype, and use it to complete a trans-Atlantic flight. Commercial use of such a plane is, however, far from becoming a reality, as the Solar Impulse only travels at 43 mph and has the ability to carry just the pilot.
“At each major premiere, the adventurers of the last century pushed back the limits of the impossible. Today, human and technical enquiry must go on, with a view to improving the quality of life for humanity. By writing the next pages in the history of aviation with solar energy, as far as a flight around the world without fuel or pollution is concerned, Solar Impulse's ambition is to contribute in the world of exploration and innovation to the cause of renewable energies,” the team says.
The technical datasheet of the Solar Impulse can be found below:
- Wingspan:63,40 m
- Length:21,85 m
- Height:6,40 m
- Weight:1 600 Kg
- Motor power:4 x 10 HP electric engines
- Solar cells:11 628 (10 748 on the wing, 880 on the horizontal stabilizer)
- Average flying speed:70 km/h
- Take-off speed:35 km/h
- Maximum altitude:8 500 m (27 900 ft)
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