Flight-goers may soon be part of a revolution in air transportation, as the potential to travel in solar-powered planes is coming closer to a reality with Solar Impulse's journey across the United States almost complete.
Reuters (News - Alert) reports that the aircraft, which runs on energy collected from the sun through its 12,000 solar cells located on its wings, landed in Washington on Sunday—its second to last stop on its flight across the country.
In the beginning of July, the airplane will head for New York after a month-long trip that began in May in San Francisco and included stops in Phoenix, Dallas and St. Louis. Upon reaching The Empire State, Solar Impulse will become the first solar-powered aircraft able to fly day and night throughout the nation and a step forward in the promotion of clean technologies.
"It proves the reliability and potential of clean technologies, and this is crucial in pushing our message forward," Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard, co-founder of the Solar Impulse project with Andre Borschberg, said in the statement.
The Solar Impulse already made its first intercontinental flight last June when it traveled from Spain to Morocco, and there are plans to build a more advanced plane based on Impulse that will fly around the world in the year 2015.
The project, which cost approximately $112 million, came about back in 2003 with the help of engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler and research assistance from a Belgian chemicals group called Solvay. According to Claude Michel, manager of Solvay's Solar Impulse Partnership, one of the major challenges of designing and building the Solar Impulse was its weight due to the fact that every 8 kilograms requires one square member of solar panels.
During a panel discussion Tuesday at Washington's National Press Club, Michel explained that it doesn't matter where the 8 kilograms comes, such as the weight of a part of the plane, equipment or even the pilot.
"Every piece of the plane is evaluated for its weight as well as its effectiveness," Michel said at the panel. "Every gram is measured."
Given that Solar Impulse's wings are 63 meters in length, the aircraft can only carry 1600kg, a weight that is 30 times less than a typical four-engine propeller-driven commercial plane. Surely if a solar-powered plane wanted to replace the traditional fuel-powered planes filled with passengers, its weight capacity would have to be greatly increased.
Edited by Alisen Downey