Swiss pioneering plane hosted by Morocco as construction begins on world’s largest thermo-solar power plant
Andre Borschberg climbs out of tiny cockpit after more than 17 hours at the controls of Solar Impulse (photo©2012 Solar Impulse / Jean Revillard)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – André Borschberg flew Solar Impulse for 17h 3min 59s Thursday 24 May, to land the experimental solar plane at Madrid’s Barajas airport. He flew from the Payerne aerodrome in Switzerland over the Massif Central towards the city of Toulouse in France, then over the Pyrenees at an altitude of 7,833 metres.
Borschberg called the flight “extraordinary”, noting that “it was incredible to fly alongside the barrier of clouds during most of the flight and not need to hesitate to fly above them. This confirms our confidence in the capacity of solar energy even further.”
His partner Bertrand Piccard will pilot the second leg of the flight, to Rabat in Morocco, after a three-day technical layover in Madrid. The Spanish stop was also a key part of planning for the plane to handle landings in major airports, crucial to planning Solar Impulse’s 2014 round-the-world flight using only solar power.
The team is being hosted in Morocco by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (Masen), which is responsible for Morocco’s solar energy plan. The team says in a statement Friday:
“Solar Impulse’s presence in Morocco is meant to participate in Masen’s commencement of construction activities, in the Ouarzazate region, of the solar complex which will hold the world’s largest thermo-solar power plant. Of a capacity of 160 MW, the plant is part of Morocco’s energy plan whose goal is to build, by 2020, five solar parks with the capacity of 2000 megawatts, reducing CO2 emission of 3,7 million tons. Solar Impulse supports this pioneering project which is in line with its own message and its philosophy of renewable energies.”
Simulated 72-hour flight will test new cockpit design but also human endurance
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Solar Impulse will run a simulated 72-hour flight night and day 21-24 February that should provide clues to human endurance in a long-flight solo pilot situation. CEO André Borschberg will test the design and configuration of the cockpit for a second plane it is building, now under construction. This will be the longest “flight” time yet for the solar-powered airplane.
The plane “needs to have a more spacious, ergonomically efficient cockpit, so that Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg – taking turns to fly it – can remain airborne for several days with their essential equipment and supplies,” the group says in a statement 20 February. The project is seeking to “accumulate experience in the management of the pilot’s vital needs on a long-duration flight. There is not much experience to draw on in previous aviation history concerning fatigue and nutritional management, so this will be a unique opportunity for the Solar Impulse team to try out various concepts designed in cooperation with project partners.”
This latest experiment can be followed live on the Solar Impulse blog.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Solar Impulse made it home safely from Paris, warmed not only by the sun but by its success in the French capital, with more than 350,000 visitors during the Le Bourget airshow. The plane made three journeys for a total of about 1,500km during its maiden European flights sojourn.
“The feedback from our European flight campaign is encouraging,” says Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse founder and president. “The welcome we received from political and industrial circles in Brussels and Paris shows that Solar Impulse is pioneering a new way of thinking in terms of renewable energy and energy saving.”
The plane on its three trips was sailing through the air at about 50kph on sunny days: it’s easy for observers on the ground to forget how sensitive the giant solar bird really is and that these maiden flights are test flights. Solar Impulse could have landed earlier than 19:45 in Payerne, but thermal bubbles created over the autoroutes, rail lines and towns can de-stabilize it.
The information and experience gathered during the flights will now be put to work in planning the next stage of the solar airplane adventure, possibly a flight to Morocco, pilot Andre Borschberg said during his Sunday flight.
Solar Impulse: the official portrait 2011 (photo, ©2011 Solar Impulse)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Solar Impulse, the Swiss solar plane that aims to be the first to fly night and day without fuel or polluting emissions, has been given a major boost from one of the world’s major elevator/lift and escalator companies, Schindler.
The Lucerne-based manufacturer this week becomes the fourth main partner for the project.
The company, which is the world’s largest supplier of escalators and the second-largest of elevators, is making an engineering and research contribution but it is also supporting the project financially with what Alfred Schindler, charman and chief executive quantified as a “low double digit figure” in millions of francs.
The announcement was made in Payerne, canton Vaud, Monday, where the Solar Impulse team projected its recently completed film, Les Ailes du Soleil, seven years in the making.
World records set, now human and technological limits to be pushed
Solar Impulse’s longer term goal is to attempt a round the world flight in 2014.
The team set three new world records for solar-powered planes 25 July 2010 when pilot and chief executive André Borschberg flew the plane for 24 hours straight:
absolute height: 9235 m
height gain: 8744 m
duration: 26 hours, 10 minutes, 19 seconds.
Swiss air traffic authorities restricted the plane to Swiss air space and air corridors that were free of other traffic initially, but in 2011 the team aims to make its first European solar flights. A major technological but also human challenge will come in 2012, with multi-day mission flights.
André Borschberg, when flying the plane night and day for the first time in 2010 was obliged to stay awake for the 26 hours.
Schindler invests in “clean and sustainable mobility”
Alfred Schindler, possibly more at home on an escalator than on a stepladder, joins Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard at the Solar Impulse cockpit
Schindler’s engineering and technical support are not surprising, insists Alfred Schindler, who says he has been a fan of Solar Impulse from the start.
His company moves more than one billion people a day, he points out, with most of them between Mumbai and Tokyo, so innovation is crucial for the company to remain a top supplier in its industry. He is particularly proud of his company’s latest innovation, the world’s first solar-powered elevator.
Schindler has invested heavily in research and development, out of which have come what the firm labels three industry-benchmarks in innovation: its destination controller, machine roomless elevators, and steel-ropeless traction.
The two groups point out in a statement that “with Schindler coming on board at the outset of the construction of the second prototype HB-SIB, the project is on excellent path to meet its challenge of flying round the world in 2014 with no fuel.”
Borschberg says he sees Schindler’s participation “as an excellent opportunity for know-how exchange and further development. With the success of the first prototype, we acquired much experience. Our technology choices were clearly validated. However to accomplish the round the world, we need to go even further in terms of technology and reliability and we look forward to benefiting from Schindler’s expertise. “
Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse pilot, at the end of 26 hours of non-stop flying in a plane without fuel: Solar Impulse completes its first flight
Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg: the dream made real, after Solar Impulse's first night flight
Update 10:15 Payerne, canton Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Solar Impulse, the first airplane powered by solar energy, landed at 09:00 at Payerne airbase, north of Lausanne, after a flight of more than 26 hours. Piloted by Solar Impulse CEO André Borschberg in an attempt to show it is possible to use the energy of the sun to power an aircraft, Solar Impulse took off 7 July just before 7:00.
Throughout the day Wednesday 7 July, the plane used its 64 metre wingspan to glide up to an altitude of 8,500 metres, which it reached in the late afternoon, above the Jura mountains.
All the while, the almost 12,000 solar panels on the wings were charging the batteries. At nightfall, the solar power generators were switched off, and Borschberg took the plane into a long, slow descent to 1,500m altitude, catching the occasional updraft where possible with the help of the team’s meteorolgist, Bruno Neininger.
T
he real test came as the plane’s solar energy supplies were depleted, and the new day’s sun rays began to power the solar cells again. At 4:30 8 July, Solar Impulse had another 6 hours energy left stored in its batteries. Sunrise was at 5:45. An exhilarated Borschberg kept repeating, “It’s only the beginning.”
The night flight was delayed almost a week due to a faulty electronic device.
A successful night flight is a prerequisite for a five-stage trip around the world using the same technique of ascent and solar cell charging during the day, slow descent during the night, and then replenishment of the batteries scheduled for 2013.
Official times and figures released by Solar Impulse Thursday morning:
Take-off time: 07/07/2010 – 06h51
Landing time: 08/07/2010 – 09:00
Flight duration: 26 hours 09 min
Maximum speed: 68 knots (ground speed)
Average speed: 23 knots
Maximum altitude: 8564 m (above sea-level)
Background: GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Le Temps, NZZ (Ger), Solar Impulse site, Solar Impulse blog
Solar impulse lifts off the ground for its first flight in Payerne, Switzerland 7 April 2010
Update 13:05 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The weather was beautiful, the mood upbeat – and the plane flew, just as everyone was hoping it would. Solar Impulse, the first plane designed to fly night and day without fossil fuels, slowly climbed 1,200 metres into the air Wednesday 7 April at 10:27 and flew for the next 87 minutes before pilot Markus Scherdel landed it again in Payerne.
Solar Impulse, maiden flight 7 April 2010 in Payerne, Switzerland
“This first flight was for me a very intense moment!” Scherdel told the crowd that had gathered, as he got down from the aircraft.
Solar Impulse
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Solar Impulse, the wide-winged Swiss plane that is the world’s first designed to fly night and day without fuel or polluting emissions, will take to the air for the first time tomorrow, Wednesday 7 April. The aircraft has a wingspan comparable to that of an Airbus A340 (63.4 m) and a weight similar to that of an average car (1,600 kg): no aircraft so large and so light has ever been built before, according to its team. The plane will take off from Payerne in canton Vaud, near the Swiss air force military base.
Pilot Markus Scherdel is expected to take off early in the morning and fly for an hour and a half, if all goes well. He should reach an altitude of 1,000 metres. “The objective of tomorrow’s mission is to verify that the plane’s flight behaviour is in line with the calculations and simulations done using the flight simulator. With such a large and light plane never having flown before, the aircraft’s flight behaviour remains unexplored,” the Solar Impulse team says in a press release.
Some 12,000 solar cells are built into its wing, supplying the 4 electric motors with a maximum output of 10 hp with renewable energy and charging the 400 kg lithium-polymer batteries during the day to allow the solar-powered aircraft to fly at night.
The project is the child of Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg and has been developed with a team of 70 people, working with 80 partners.
Background, GenevaLunch
Solar Impulse during its "flea hop" tests in December 2009 - solar panels are at the back
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government has approved a new flying ordinance that will allow pioneering solar plane Solar Impulse to take to the skies at night around Payerne, in canton Vaud. Flights are normally banned between 06:00 and 22:00 in Switzerland, but the new ordinance, which applies only to Solar Impulse, will allow the plane to make up to 20 flights a year for the duration of the test period, starting 1 April 2010 and ending 31 December 2013.
Solar Impulse. Now in Payerne. © 2009 Stéphane Gros/ Solar Impulse
Update 18:55 Payerne, canton Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Solar Impulse, a solar-powered aircraft which will attempt to be the first fly around the world non-stop powered only by the sun’s energy, has arrived at the airfield in Payerne, canton Vaud.
The plane was put in boxes in Duebendorf, near Zurich, and trucked to Payerne, where it is being reassembled for trials this Spring.
© 2009 Stéphane Gros/ Solar Impulse
Reassembly will be finished by March, after which flight tests are scheduled, involving taking the plane to a height of 8,500m. They will be capped by a 36-hour endurance flight.
Solar Impulse getting off the ground during the "flea hop" test 3 December 2009
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Solar Impulse hopped off the ground for the first time Thursday 3 December, flying 350 metres at an altitude of one metre. The team that has been building the plane broke into wild applause at the Duebendorf airport near Zurich.
The airplane, designed to be the first to fly night and day without fuel, was a dream of Bertrand Piccard’s 10 years ago, and has been developed over the past six years under the guidance of Piccard and co-founder André Borschberg. The airplane’s testing in recent weeks has been so positive, according to the men, that the team decided to go ahead with lift-off today, if briefly.
Solar Impulse unveiled in Duebendorf, Zurich June 2009
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Solar Impulse is moving out of the hangar near Zurich where it has been undergoing months of fine-tuning. The solar airplane’s engineering team turned over the plane officially to the test team Monday 19 October and ground testing is now beginning, under the direction of Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier.
The airplane, a project directed by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, aims to fly around the world fueled only by energy from the sun.
Solar Impulse computer model in flight (image: EPFL)
Duebendorf, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Yesterday, it was a dream. Today, it is an airplane – tomorrow it will be an ambassador of renewable energies”, Bertrand Piccard told journalists gathered Friday 26 June for the unveiling of his futuristic fuel-free airplane Solar Impulse.
Piccard is the head of a project to build and fly a plane that uses only the sun’s energy to fly non-stop around the world.
