Oman - An audacious project to fly a plane around the world without a drop of fuel has completed its first stage.
The Solar Impulse 2 – an aircraft powered by the rays of the sun alone – took off from Abu Dhabi on Monday morning, landing safely in Oman 12 hours later. The 400km flight is the first step in a round-the-world trip which will cover 35 200km over the next five months.
The Swiss-built plane is the first solar-powered aircraft that can fly both day and night. Sixteen years in the making, the plan is to hop from city to city around the world with two pilots taking it in turns to fly the 12 legs.
Flying for up to five days and nights at a time in a tiny, cramped cockpit, they are aiming to demonstrate that perpetual flight is a possibility.
The multi-million-pound aircraft, funded by large corporate sponsors such as Google and Omega, is powered by 17 000 solar cells on wings larger than those of a Boeing 747 jet.
Thanks to its cutting-edge technology, the aircraft weighs little more than a family car. Yesterday’s first leg was flown in daylight – but on future flights the plane will climb to 27 800ft (8473m) during the day to catch the strongest rays, and then glide overnight on battery power down to 5000ft (1524m).
In order to achieve this feat the plane carries 600kg of high-tech lithium batteries, making up a quarter of the craft’s total weight. André Borschberg, 62, who flew the first leg on Monday, said just before take-off: “It is exciting because you simulate, you calculate, you imagine, but there is nothing like testing and doing it for real. We are all confident and hopefully we will see each other here in five months.”
CHALLENGING CONDITIONS
His expedition partner, veteran Swiss explorer Dr Bertrand Piccard, 57, said the two men have been training hard for the mission. They will face temperatures dropping to -40C in their unheated, unpressurised cockpit and will have to breathe oxygen from a tank to cope with the extreme altitudes.
The men will have no room to stand, will survive on meagre rations to keep the weight down and will use a built-in toilet under their seat cushion. “You have to make the cockpit like your own house for a week in the air,” Dr Piccard said.
Flying solo, the pilots’ biggest challenge will be fatigue. They are aiming to sleep for 20 minutes at a time, repeating the naps every two hours. The men have learned self-hypnosis to help them fall asleep at will.
They will wear goggles that flash after their allotted nap time to wake them, and armbands that buzz if the plane is not flying level.
The mission was thought up by Dr Piccard 16 years ago after he achieved his lifetime dream of ballooning non-stop around the world.
Dr Piccard, who comes from a dynasty of Swiss explorers, had to turn to sponsors to fund the programme. He said: “Commercial airlines did not believe in what we are doing, aeroplane constructors also did not believe that it was possible. But this is normal. It was not the people who were selling candles who invented the lightbulb. If you want a paradigm shift you need people from outside.”
He called the technology a “primitive” first step towards zero-carbon transportation. It could also help create unmanned high-altitude planes which never have to be refuelled. These could, in theory, replace satellites.
Dr Piccard added: “Miracles can be achieved with solar power. We want to show we can fly day and night in an aircraft without a drop of fuel.”
Daily Mail