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Solar-Powered Airplane Completes First International Flight

Posted by samzenpus on from the icarus-airlines dept.

liqs8143 writes "Solar Impulse, a fully solar-powered airplane, has completed its first international solar-powered flight. After a flight lasting 12 hours 59 minutes at an altitude of 12,400 feet, using no fuel and propelled by solar energy alone, Solar Impulse HB-SIA landed safely in Brussels, Switzerland. After the landing, company co-founder Bertrand Piccard said, 'Our goal is to create a revolution in the minds of the people . . . to promote solar energies — not necessarily a revolution in aviation.' Compared with 2003, energy efficiency has increased from 16 to 22 percent. And the cells are now half as thick. The project has a total cost of $88 million, which is funded by mostly-Swiss partners and public donations."

9 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Re:'International' Flight? by BeaverCleaver · · Score: 3, Informative

    Switzerland to Belgium. So it wasn't just a hop across an adjacent border. And, as the summary says, they were in the air for almost 13 hours.

    --
    sustainable living
  2. Awesome Geography ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Solar Impulse HB-SIA landed safely in Brussels, Switzerland.
    Damn ... never knew Brussels was part of Switzerland ...O wait ... guess I should go hand in my Belgian passport and go request a Swiss one ....

    Awesome Geography ./ !

    1. Re:Awesome Geography ! by Andy_R · · Score: 5, Funny

      Brussels is in Switzerland, for very large values of Switzerland.

      --
      A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
  3. Re:'International' Flight? by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Funny

    So it went through Switzerland, France, and Belgium?

    Still not that impressive; I'm working on a boomerang capable of traveling across four US states, which I plan to test in New Mexico.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  4. Beat them by retroworks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I didn't fly across the Atlantic, a savings of 100%

    --
    Gently reply
  5. Payerne (SZ) via Nancy (FR) to Brussels (BE) by theNAM666 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actual flight path in title. Approx 660km @ 50km / hr, with cleared airspace due to special needs. See http://www.solarimpulse.com/blog/2011/05/13/all-lights-at-green/ Herzliche Glückwünsche to the team.

    1. Re:Payerne (SZ) via Nancy (FR) to Brussels (BE) by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 3, Informative

      SZ? Wow, Swaziland to Belgium is quite a hike.

      And yet if you remove the superfluous punctuation from your Wikipedia search you find that SZ is the "the NATO country code for Switzerland". Swaziland would then be WZ in that system.

  6. Re:'International' Flight? by dwywit · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hot air balloons don't generate lift using aerofoils, they float using a large bag of hot lighter-than-the-surrounding air, and they use large propane burners to keep that bag's contents warm - so they do use fuel. They also only have gross control - up and down. Their direction of travel is largely subject to prevailing winds.

    --
    They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  7. Brussels, Switzerland? by Chrisje · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am deeply sorry, but I have to agree with TheNAM666 here. This does look like a typical American write-up. Just like that time a security lady at an airport in the US was questioning me about why my Dutch passport was made in Switzerland. It got made at the consulate in Stockholm. Or that time when the Israeli border check said the same damn thing.

    I have found that both Americans and Israelis have displayed the most spectacular levels of ignorance about the world outside of their own country. More so than other travelers and people I've met in my life. That's not to say all Americans and Israelis are stupid, far from it. It's just that the ratio of numbnuts to decent conversationalists is significantly higher.

    Coolest example ever was when Dutch customs at Schiphol airport were looking for something because they were asking every passenger that passed through a certain spot where they just arrived from. They put the question in Dutch first. An American lady in front of me looked at the customs officer and in reply to his "Pardon Mevrouw, waar komt uw vlucht vandaan?" she barked an irritated "I don't speak German".

    He smiled, inclined his head and replied "That's alright, madam. Neither do I."