HB-SIA On Flight
There seems to be a refreshing new hope for all of us interested on entering a new era of efficient, renewable and non-contaminating energies. For some of us, Solar Power stands as the best candidate.
This new hope is brought by SOLAR IMPULSE, a project founded by Bertrand Piccard, psychiatrist and aeronaut and André Borschberg, an engineer and graduate in management science. For seven years, a team of 50 engineers and technicians have been working on the HB-SIA solar aircraft, a zero fuel and completely solar powered aircraft that is able to flight at night.
Solar Powered vehicles have been in development from the 1980’s. For a long time there were no really satisfying results. Even today when you mention solar powered vehicles people tend to imagine a really bulky thing that moves very slow and just stops if the sky gets cloudy – just a scientific curiosity that has no practical use.
However, the SOLAR IMPULSE team is changing the scenario.
SOLAR IMPULSE
SOLAR IMPULSE is a partnership between several companies (Solvay, Omega and Deutsche Bank among others) that expresses a positive vision of scientific adventure, environmental awareness and contribution to the future generations.
This brings some hope for a world that is currently based on squeezing up earth’s natural resources until the last drop to derive economic benefits for a reduced number of people, and not considering future or present consequences in account.
There is certainly a necessity of abandoning the ‘resource-exhausting economy’ simply because it won’t be possible to continue with it much longer. In the words of SOLAR IMPULSE founder, Bertrand Piccard:
“Adventure is not necessarily a spectacular deed, but rather an “extra-ordinary” one, meaning something that pushes us outside our normal way of thinking and behaving. Something that forces us to leave the protective shell of our certainties, within which we act and react automatically. Adventure is a state of mind in the face of the unknown, a way of conceiving our existence as an experimental field, in which we have to develop our inner resources, climb up the path of our personal evolution and assimilate the ethical and moral values, which we need as our travel companions.”
HB-SIA Solar Powered Aircraft
HB-SIA Official Picture
From the beginning of the project the intention was to produce a completely self-sufficient solar powered aircraft that could sustain flight on both day and night, and come close to perpetual flight. This is a tremendous challenge. Even with the advent of PV, that has made them more efficient, the balance between precise aerodynamics and dimensions required by the solar panels array to produce the necessary energy, is difficult to achieve. Also, materials have to be very lightweight yet very resistant.
Wingspan 63.40 m
Length 21.85 m
CURRENT STATUS
The plane was up in the air yesterday for the whole day, then through the entire night, flying solely on solar energy. This flight is the longest and highest in the history of solar aviation!Flight report
Pilot: André Borschberg, CEO and Co-founder
Take-off time: 07/07/2010 – 06h51
Landing time: 08/07/2010 – 09:00
Flight duration: 26 hours 09 min
Maximum speed: 68 knots (ground speed)
Average speed: 23 knots
Maximum altitude: 8564 m (above sea-level)
Tags: HB-SIA, Perpetual Flight, SOLAR IMPULSE, Solar Powered Aircraft, Solar Powered Vehicle
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