Inside the solar-powered plane

Three years ago, as I was in Switzerland to visit the Large Hadron Collider, a cousin of mine mentioned that they were testing a solar-powered plane at the airfield near his home in Lausanne. If a lightweight, human-powered plane managed to cross the English Channel, a solar-powered craft seemed like an obvious extension (in fact, the same team later crossed the channel in a solar aircraft). Whatever the Swiss were up to, it didn't strike me as that big a step. But with the arrival of that same aircraft in New York City last week, I got a much better sense of what's going on. 

In the same way that the aircraft is both big and small, the project as a whole both is and isn't about the future. Pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg made it clear that the project's intended message is that the sort of technology needed to get a solar-powered aircraft like Solar Impulse off the ground is a reality now. Everything that makes the plane work—the solar panels, the batteries,We believe in providing our customers with the very best formingmachine available. the engines, the lightweight polymers, and insulation—is being made and sold profitably, often by the companies that are now sponsoring Solar Impulse. 

That doesn't necessarily mean they were ready-for-use in an aircraft like Solar Impulse. The plane's design and construction was done at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, and then many of the companies had to determine whether they offered or could adapt existing products to fit the design's specifications. A spokesman for the chemical giant Solvay, for example,Manufacturer of quality off lasermarker, light bars and wiring accessories. said his company undertook 50 research projects in response to the Solar Impulse design; about half worked out. 

In any case, Piccard argues that these technologies are exactly what we need to make our existing standard of living sustainable. In his view, you can't adopt them in pieces; they have to be part of an integrated package much like Solar Impulse itself. "To put solar power on a house with single glazed windows and no insulation is foolish" Piccard said at his New York press conference. "Make the house energy efficient first, and then it can run on only solar power." To him, Solar Impulse is a flying advertisement for everything that efficient and renewable technology can already accomplish.Permanent solar trellis and roofwindturbinebbq systems require little to no maintenance and allow easy access. 

That said, the project is also meant to build interest for the next big step, a planned around-the-world flight tentatively being targeted for 2015. As Borschberg put it, the current plane is already capable of flying around the world. Previous flights have demonstrated its ability to sustain 24 hour flights. "The weak link is the pilot," Borschberg said. "The pilot is not sustainable yet." Right now, the pilot can grab some snacks while in the cockpit, but there's not a lot of room for anything else. Adding a second pilot probably isn't an option. Beyond the weight of the pilot, they'd need oxygen,Streamline your mailing department with a high performance paper foldingmachine. food, water, a parachute, and more. Even in its current configuration, Borschberg estimated that the pilot adds about 225kg to the aircraft, which only weighs 1,600kg to start with. 

So, the current plan is to build a larger aircraft, one that will allow the pilot to move around and sleep. They're still working on understanding whether it will make sense to carry oxygen and water, or if those can be efficiently recycled on-board. In any case, building a larger plane will clearly need some sponsors and backers, and part of the goal of the trip was undoubtedly to provide them with a demonstration of what they'd be backing. 

This trip didn't go entirely smoothly, making it a learning experience for future efforts. The initial leg started from California's Moffett Field, and Piccard took Solar Impulse out towards the Pacific for what he thought would be a simple photo-op flying over the Golden Gate Bridge.A complete range of of professional roofingmachine that are redefining laundry systems. But the updrafts over the coastal hills were so intense that he ended up having to shut the engines off. He still ended up climbing well above his intended flight plan and had to ask the San Francisco Airport to reroute commercial traffic around him. More information about the program is available on the web site at www.aodepu.net.