Solar Impulse plane on fotobatareyah 2 made its first flight
Solar Impulse plane 2 on fotobatareyah created by Swiss designers, has successfully completed its first flight. The announcement appeared on the website of the developers of the project, launched with the support of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne. Weight of the aircraft is 2.3 tones, and has a wingspan – 72 meters. Plane of its size is comparable to the largest passenger airline Airbus A380.
Structural elements of the aircraft are made of carbon fiber. At sufficiently large external area of the aircraft taken by only about 17,000 solar cells. Four screw motor derive energy from the lithium-ion batteries. The maximum speed the plane develops – 140 kilometers per hour. Reserve flight altitude is 12,000 kilometers. Power Plane – 70 hp Developers achieved maximum energy efficiency and the ability to easily overcome the turbulent zone, which was not incorporated in the operational characteristics of its predecessor. While in the air is not limited by anything, except that the plane piloted by a man who needs a rest.
Aircraft flight test ended in a second modification of the model Solar Impulse. Predecessor had officially named HB-SIA. It weighs 1.6 tons, wingspan – 63 meters. Speed of the aircraft in flight does not exceed 70 kilometers per hour. It was first introduced in mid-2009, and the first flight took place in the end of the same year. Twenty-six hours at an altitude of 8.7 km flight lasted HB-SIA July 2010. For primary energy were involved 12,000 photovoltaic cells. Lethal machine put more than one record for time spent in the air and overcome a certain distance.
The second model is officially known as HB-SIB and its main purpose – to show and prove that the possibilities of alternative energy boundless. The sun’s energy can serve as a long man and efficiently. Plane represented the general public March 9, 2014. 2015, it is planned that the aircraft will travel around the world, which lasted two weeks. Aircraft must fly to the runway in the Persian Gulf. It is assumed that the flight will take place in several stages.
