NEW YORK, July 7. / Correspondent. ITAR-TASS Oleg Zelenin /. The plane “Solar Impulse” / Solar Impulse /, a solar-powered, landed safely on Saturday night at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, completing a historic flight over the territory of the continental United States.
expedition length of the route which was about 5 thousand km, started in San Francisco / California /. Swiss Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, alternately ruled the single-seat aircraft, made a stop in Phoenix / Arizona / Dallas / Texas / St. Louis / Missouri / Cincinnati / Ohio / and the capital Washington. In total, the flight from the western to the eastern coast of the U.S. without a single drop of fuel took 105 hours 41 minutes.
Not without adventure: half-way from Washington to New York on the left wing of the “Solar Impulse” rupture the hull, causing Andre Borschberg had to take a shortcut to quickly get to your destination. As a result, the plane touched the runway at Kennedy Airport at 23:09 local time / 7:09 MSK / – for almost three hours before the scheduled time. When planting Andre did not use air brakes to avoid a destructive vibration inside the wing.
“stage, which was to be the simplest, in fact, was the most difficult,” – admitted Bertrand Piccard reporters on the runway at Kennedy Airport. “But do not forget, this plane – a prototype. His flight – an adventure for the pioneers. Nobody was expecting that everything will be totally smooth,” – said the aviator.
aircraft, designed in Switzerland, powered by four engines with capacity of 10 horsepower each. They are powered by a 400-pound lithium battery that is charged by solar energy collected on the wing housed two thousand solar cells. Thus monoplane wing span comparable with that of the Airbus A340-600 – 63.4 m, while its weight is 1.6 tons – almost 230 times less than that of said plane. Thanks to the low weight of the “Solar Impulse” is able to reach a cruising speed of 70 km / h and climb to a height of 9.2 m th
the news of the expedition can be followed on the official website – http://live.solarimpulse.com. There was also broadcast live from cameras installed on board the “Solar Impulse”, a mission control center and at your destination. In addition, the site recorded the main indicators – the flight speed, the height, direction and the level of battery charge.
Borschberg and Piccard are both pilots, co-founders and architects of the project “Solar Impulse”. Having made a flight across the United States, a cost of $ 2.7 million, the organizers hope to draw attention to alternative energy sources and to find investors willing to help in the development of the project.
The next challenge for the pilots will be traveling around the world for which they plan to build an improved version of the “Solar Impulse”. As an indicative timeline for the flight they call in 2015. “Our goal – to inspire the younger generation to new developments and discoveries,” – said Andre Borschberg.
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