Riding a Sunbeam Around the World

In the fall of 1926, Charles Lindbergh captured a generation's imagination by flying the Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris. In the next several years, Swiss aviation daredevil Bertrand Piccard will retrace Lindbergh's flight in the world's first solar-powered plane.

The carbon-fibre Solar Impulse will have an 80 metre wingspan equivalent to that of a 580 tonne Airbus A380, and 250 square metres (2690 square feet) of solar panels.

Yet it will weigh just two tonnes and barely squeeze the lone pilot -- Piccard -- into its narrow, ultra-computerised, cockpit.

The solar panels charge up ultralight lithium batteries which power four electric propellor engines along the wings.

Previous attempts at solar-powered flight, says Piccard -- son of the man who made the deepest oceanic dive in history, and grandson of the first person to fly a balloon into the stratosphere -- are
"'largely anecdoctal,' because they involved relatively short flights in daytime in perfect weather.'"

His increments-be-damned attitude fits the development of the Solar Impulse. As the website proclaims, its purpose is "to demonstrate the importance of the new technologies in sustainable development, and of course, once again, to place dream and emotion at the heart of scientific adventure." Eventually it will
"fly autonomously, day and night, propelled uniquely by solar energy, right round the world without fuel or pollution. "

Keep up with the Solar Impulse's computerized test flights here.

Solar-powered plane prepares for aviation history [Breitbart]

Image: Solar Impulse