Solar plane completes epic round-the-world trip

26 กรกฎาคม 2559

First airplane to circle the world powered only by the sun, Solar Impulse 2 completes historic round-the-world journey.

FLIGHT, TECHNOLOGY & RENEWABLE ENERGY

Solar plane completes epic round-the-world trip

26/07/2016
AFP News agency

ABU DHABI - The solar-powered airplane Solar Impulse 2, on Tuesday, completed its historic round-the-world journey.

The plane became the first airplane to circle the globe powered only by the sun.

The project was launched to promote renewable energy.

Solar Impulse 2 plane lands in Abu Dhabi for the final leg of the solar flight (Source: AFP)

23 DAYS OF FLYING WITHOUT A DROP OF FUEL

Cheers and applause broke out as the plane touched down before dawn in Abu Dhabi after the final leg of its marathon trip which began on March 9 last year.

Swiss explorer and project director Bertrand Piccard was in the cockpit during the more than 48-hour flight from Cairo, crossing the Red Sea, the vast Saudi desert and flying over the Gulf.

It capped a remarkable 43,000-kilometre journey across four continents, two oceans and three seas, accomplished in 23 days of flying without a drop of fuel.

Swiss pioneer Bertrand Piccardis (top-R) and Andre Borschberg (top-L) posing for a picture with the team after landing in Abu Dhabi complete its world tour flight on July 26, 2016 in the United Arab Emirates. (Source: AFP)

ACHIEVEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF ENERGY

"One thing I would like for you to remember: More than an achievement in the history of aviation, Solar Impulse has made an achievement in (the) history of energy," Mr Piccard said as he disembarked from the plane.

"We have enough solutions, enough technologies. We should never accept the world to be polluted only because people are scared to think in another way."

The solar-powered airplane shows an aerial view during the flight over the Red Sea during the last leg of the round the World trip. (Solar Impulse 2 and Bertrand Piccard via AFP)

118-HOUR RECORD-SETTING SOLO JOURNEY

Dubbed the "paper plane", Solar Impulse 2 circumnavigated the globe in 17 stages, with 58-year-old Piccard and his compatriot Andre Borschberg taking turns at the controls of the single-seat aircraft.

Mr Borschberg, 63, broke the record for the longest uninterrupted solo journey in aviation history between Nagoya, Japan and Hawaii that lasted nearly 118 hours and covered 8,924km last year.

In this handout picture taken by pilot Bertrand Piccard and released by 'Solar Impulse 2', a solar-powered airplane, shows an aerial view during the flight over the Red Sea during the last leg of the round the World trip. (Photo by Solar Impulse 2 and Bertrand Piccard via AFP)

LIGHT AS A CAR, WINGSPAN OF 747

No heavier than a car but with the wingspan of a Boeing 747, the four-engine, battery -powered aircraft relies on around 17,000 solar cells embedded in its wings.

The plane clocked an average speed of 80km an hour.

Solar Impulse 2 in a hangar on the island of Oahu, Hawaii April 2016 (Source: Wikipedia)

The pilots used oxygen tanks to breathe at high altitude and wore suits specially designed to cope with the extreme conditions.

They have had to withstand temperatures inside the tiny cockpit ranging from minus 20 degrees to plus 35 degrees Celsius.

RENEWABLE ENERGY CAN ACHIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLE

Mr Piccard has said he launched the project in 2003 to show that renewable energy "can achieve the impossible".

His dream has taken much longer than planned. The attempt was initially expected to last five months, including 25 days of actual flying.

Solar Impulse ready for take off November 2014 (Source: Wikipedia)

But the aircraft was grounded in July last year when its solar-powered batteries suffered problems halfway through the trip.

The project was also beset by bad weather and illness, which forced Mr Piccard to delay the final leg of the trip.

TEAM OF SCIENTISTS IN MONACO PREPARED FLIGHT STRATEGIES

While in the air, the pilot was constantly in contact with mission control in Monaco, where a team of weathermen, mathematicians and engineers monitored the route and prepared flight strategies.

A psychiatrist who made the first non-stop balloon flight around the world in 1999, Mr Piccard had warned the last leg would be difficult because of the high temperatures.

"It's been two hours now I'm flying into high up and down drafts. And I can't even drink. It's really exhausting," he tweeted on Sunday.

While the pilots do not expect commercial solar-powered planes any time soon, but they do hope the project will help spur wider progress in clean energy.

"Now the trip around the world has been done, and there is one thing less that is impossible in the world," Mr Piccard concluded.

[Note: For full set of Solar Impulse videos, YouTube here]