The Solar Impulse 2 airplane flew into an Abu Dhabi sunrise on Monday to begin the first leg of what the $150 million project’s backers hope will be the first round-the-world flight powered by nothing but the sun.
Swiss engineer Andre Borschberg was at the controls of the single-seater plane for the Abu Dhabi-to-Oman flight, which began at about 7:12 a.m. local time (11:12 p.m. ET Sunday). The takeoff from Abu Dhabi’s Al Bateen Executive Airport was 40 minutes late, due to technical glitches that the flight team had to resolve.
Solar Impulse 2’s round-the-world odyssey follows up on 2013’s flight across America, which was accomplished by a prototype predecessor. This upgraded plane has a wingspan wider than a Boeing 747, and yet it weighs about as much as a family car. Solar Impulse 2 is equipped with more than 17,000 solar cells and more than 1,300 pounds of batteries — a system that stores and generates enough power to keep the plane going day and night.
The Swiss-led project is designed to demonstrate environmentally friendly technologies. “With clean technologies we can achieve the impossible — that’s what we’ll demonstrate,” said Bertrand Piccard, the other pilot on Solar Impulse’s two-man tag team.
The flight to Oman was expected to take 10 to 12 hours, and organizers say it will be four or five months before Borschberg and Piccard complete the 22,000-mile circuit in Abu Dhabi.
CLICK HERE for the Video
0 comments:
Post a Comment