Image copyright SOLAR IMPULSE Powered by solar-powered airplane without fuel Solar Impulse 2 started last flight in his world tour, starting from Cairo.
It will take about 48 hours to fly to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates – starting point of the route, where Solar Impulse set out on his journey in March 2015
Controls the aircraft at the final stage of the Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard. .
The flight should not be any difficulties, although some engineers are concerned about how an airplane can affect a very high temperature in the Middle East.
Most of the time, Picard will hold an oxygen mask to avoid caused by heat rising air currents and turbulence.
Warm, thin air over the Saudi desert also means that Solar Impulse engines have to work more load to allow movement of the aircraft.
This will require careful control of energy reserves in lithium polymer batteries – energy should be sufficient for the flight and at night.
“We thought that the flight would be easy – in Saudi Arabia between Egypt and Abu Dhabi are always good weather, but at the same time to develop the right strategy is very difficult.” – Picard said in an interview with the BBC si.
Solar Impulse has already overcome 30 thousand kilometers. This is the first in the history of the world tour of the aircraft without fuel, entirely on solar energy.
The flight between Cairo and Abu Dhabi – the 17 th stage of the route, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in which the Solar Impulse.
Piccard flew the plane at a time with his friend and partner Andre Borshbergom.
The two pilots are expected to complete their mission in the last year, but it has slowed down due to expectations of good weather in the Northern Hemisphere.
after the battery damage during record, the five-day flight over the western part of the Pacific ocean in June and July 2015 journey was suspended for 10 months.
For Bertrand Piccard landing in Abu Dhabi will complete 17 years sprawled on the enterprise, whose purpose was to prove that the plane on solar batteries can fly around the world.
The idea was born after the 1999 Piccard made the first non-stop flight around the Earth in a balloon
That mission was about to end in tragedy -. The balloon Breitling Orbiter 3 has landed in the Egyptian desert with little or no propane reserves, the gas that was used in the burners, keep it in the air.
It was then, as said Picard, and he decided that “there must be another way.”
Enthusiast clean technologies do not consider that the airlines are ready to move on planes running on photovoltaic cells, but at the same time he is confident that solar cells will play an important role in the future of aviation.
“I am ready to bet that in 10 years will elektrosamolety, capable of carrying 50 passengers on routes of short and medium-haul” -. He says
“The flight will take place silently and without pollution . air Airports can be built almost in the center of the city -. no noise for neighbors This opens up completely new possibilities for air transport market and then people will remember that it all started with a mad venture to fly around the globe in the solar plane, and the result is proved. useful for all “, – says Picard.
Bertrand Piccard and André Borshberg We worked on the Solar Impulse project more than ten years.
The wingspan of the machine is wider than that of the double-deck long-haul passenger aircraft “Boeing-747″, but it weighs only 2.3 tons, and its wings are covered with 17 thousand solar cells.
have the aircraft its especially :
- The aircraft is very sensitive to weather changes
- at the same time, the efficiency of its solar cells and batteries is very high
- This allows him to stay in the air for many days and nights
- The pilot can sleep only fitfully, not more than 20 minutes
- The cockpit size no more than a phone booth
solar Impulse has broken several world records in flight category on solar energy. The main objective of the project – to demonstrate the potential of environmentally friendly technologies
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