6 March 2013
The team behind the Solar Impulse aircraft is preparing the aircraft for a four-stop flight across North America this summer. The flight is the next step in its bid to confirm that a solar-powered airplane can fly day and night without fuel.
The aircraft arrived in California disassembled in a crate and is now at Moffett Airfield, San Francisco where its reassembly has begun.
The Across America mission is scheduled to begin on 1 May, flying from San Francisco to Washington DC and New York city, with 2-3 stopovers on the way. The project’s ultimate goal is to fly around the world in 2015 with the second prototype aircraft, HB-SIB, which according to the team will be eleven percent larger.
The Solar Impulse has a 205ft wingspan, and the upper surfaces of the wing contain 12,000 photovoltaic cells for converting sunlight to electric power. They will feed four 10hp electric motors to drive the 3,527lb aircraft at speeds of around 40kt.
<a href=’http://solarimpulse.com/en/tag/Across-America’ target=’_blank’>solarimpulse.com</a>
