Round-the-world solar plane debut
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Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard has unveiled a prototype of the solar-powered plane he hopes eventually to fly around the world.
The initial version, spanning 61m but weighing just 1,500kg, will undergo trials to prove it can fly at night.
Dr Piccard, who made history in 1999 by circling the globe non-stop in a balloon, says he wants to demonstrate the potential of renewable energies.
He hopes to fly a later version of the plane across the Atlantic in 2012.
The flight would be a risky endeavour. Only now is solar and battery technology becoming mature enough to sustain flight through the night – and then only in unmanned planes.
But Dr Piccard’s Solar Impulse team has invested tremendous energy – and no little money – in trying to find what they believe is a breakthrough design.
“I love this type of vision where you set the goal and then you try to find a way to reach it, because this is challenging,” he told BBC News.
Testing programme
The HB-SIA has the look of a glider but is on the scale – in terms of its width – of a modern airliner.
The aeroplane incorporates composite materials to keep it extremely light and uses super-efficient solar cells, batteries, motors and propellers to get it through the dark hours.
Dr Piccard will begin testing with short runway flights in which the plane lifts just a few metres into the air.
As confidence in the machine develops, the team will move to a day-night circle. This has never been done before in a piloted solar-powered plane.
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