Friday 27 May 2011

Solar plane flew Europe

The experimental solar-powered plane that flew from Switzerland, landed in Brussels after a flight that lasted 13 hours. The new, harder test for solar planes are to come next year.

Prototype, whose wing covers 12,000 photo-voltage cells that feed the four electric strength of ten horsepower, flew at an altitude of 3,600 meters at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour.

The aircraft was designed by Swiss pilot Bertrand Picard and physician, and was piloted by Andre Borsberg. Its wingspan is 64 meters, which is close to a large model plane A340 Erbas. Weighs only 1.6 tons, the weight of an average car. It is made of carbon fiber. The cockpit has a computer with special software that minimizes energy consumption.

"With this flight we would encourage politicians around the world to support advanced energy solutions,"said Picard immediately after landing the aircraft. On that occasion, called for a change in thinking and encourage young people to adopt new technologies and stop the spending of fossil fuels. "Folly is that humanity spends billions of tons of oil every hour,"said Picard.

Soon flight around the Earth

The aircraft has already entered the history of aeronautics in July 2010. when he performed a long flight of 24 hours without a break using only solar energy and batteries. A further aim of this project worth 75 million euros is the creation of a new prototype that will be even bigger and have better performance. When asked whether they considered increasing the speed of the aircraft, Picard said that for now is not the goal.
The new prototype should 2013th fly over the Atlantic, and the final goal of the flyover of the entire globe in five stages that are expected 2013th and 2014th year. Powered on solar energy has already received support from the European Commission.

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