Solar Impulse

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Solar Impulse
Solar Impulse 1 during its first "flea hop" test flight in Dübendorf on 3 December 2009.
Role Experimental solar-powered aircraft
National origin Swiss
Manufacturer Solar Impulse
Designer Solar Impulse
First flight 3 December 2009
Number built 2 (including prototype)

Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range solar-powered aircraft project.[1] It is led by Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard, who co-piloted the first balloon to circle the world non-stop,[2] and Swiss businessman André Borschberg. The privately financed project hopes to achieve the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power.

The first aircraft, bearing Swiss aircraft registration HB-SIA and often referred to as Solar Impulse 1, is a single-seat monoplane, capable of taking off under its own power, and designed to be able to remain airborne up to 36 hours.[3] This aircraft conducted its first test flight in December 2009, and first flew an entire diurnal solar cycle, including nearly nine hours of night flying, in a 26-hour flight on 7–8 July 2010.[4] Piccard and Borschberg completed successful solar-powered flights from Switzerland to Spain and Morocco in 2012,[5] and conducted a multi-stage flight across the USA in 2013.[6][7]

Building on the experience of the prototype, a slightly larger follow-on design, designated HB-SIB and known as Solar Impulse 2, was built and first flown in 2014. In March 2015, it began a circumnavigation of the globe, leaving from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and scheduled to return there five months later.[8][9]

Design and development

Piccard initiated the Solar Impulse project in November 2003 after undertaking a feasibility study in partnership with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.[10] By 2009 he had assembled a multi-disciplinary team of 50 engineers and technical specialists from six countries, assisted by about 100 outside advisers and 80 technological partners.[11][12] The project is financed by a number of private companies and individuals. The first company to officially support the project was Semper Gestion, after co-founder Eric Freymond was convinced of the future success of the highly media-friendly Bertrand Piccard.[13] At present the main partners are Omega SA, Solvay, Schindler and ABB.[14] Other partners and supporters of the project include Bayer MaterialScience, Altran, Swisscom, Swiss Re (Corporate Solutions), Clarins, Toyota, BKW FMB Energie and Symphony Technology Group. The EPFL, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Dassault have provided additional technical expertise, while SunPower provided the aircraft's photovoltaic cells.[15][16] In October 2013, Solar Impulse announced that Peter Diamandis had committed to supporting the project after meeting with Solar Impulse officials during that year’s Google Zeitgeist.[17]

Timeline

  • 2003: Feasibility study at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
  • 2004–2005: Development of the concept
  • 2006: Simulation of long-haul flights
  • 2006–09: Construction of first prototype (HB-SIA; Solar Impulse 1)
  • 2009: First flight of Solar Impulse 1
  • 2009–11: Manned test flights, including first all-night flight in 2010.[18]
  • 2011–12: Further test flights through Europe and North Africa in 7 legs
  • 2011–13: Construction of second prototype (HB-SIB; Solar Impulse 2)
  • 2013: Continental flight across the US of Solar Impulse 1 (Mission Across America)[1][6][7]
  • 2014: First flight of Solar Impulse 2
  • 2015: World tour of Solar Impulse 2, in 12 stages over five months; it commenced in March[8][11][19]

Prototype aircraft (HB-SIA)

HB-SIA showing fuselage and engines
HB-SIA showing wing

With a non-pressurized cockpit, the HB-SIA is primarily a demonstrator design. The plane has a similar wingspan to the Airbus A340 airliner. Under the wing are four nacelles, each with a set of lithium polymer batteries, a 10 hp (7.5 kW) motor and a twin-bladed propeller. To keep the wing as light as possible, a customised carbon fibre honeycomb sandwich structure is used.[20] 11,628 photovoltaic cells on the upper wing surface and the horizontal stabilizer generate electricity during the day. These both propel the plane and charge its batteries to allow flight at night, theoretically enabling the single-seat plane to stay in the air indefinitely.[21][22]

The aircraft's major design constraint is the capacity of the lithium polymer batteries. Over an optimum 24-hour cycle, the motors can deliver a combined average of about 8 hp (6 kW), roughly the power used by the Wright brothers' Flyer, the first successful powered aircraft, in 1903.[20] In addition to the charge stored in its batteries, the aircraft uses the potential energy of height gained during the day to power its night flights.[23]

Specifications

Data from Solar Impulse Project[20] and Diaz[24]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 1
  • Aspect ratio: 19.7Take-off speed: 35 kilometres per hour (22 mph)

Performance

  • Endurance: 36 hours (projected)

Operational history

Maiden flight and other early flights

On 26 June 2009, the Solar Impulse was first presented to the public at the Dübendorf Air Base, Switzerland. Following taxi testing, a short-hop test flight was made on 3 December 2009,[25] piloted by Markus Scherdel.[26] André Borschberg, co-leader of the project team, said of the flight:

"It was an unbelievable day. The airplane flew for about 350 metres (1,150 ft) and about 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) above the ground ... The aim was not to get high but to land on the same runway at a speed to test its controllability and get a first feeling of its flying characteristics ... the craft behaved just as the engineers had hoped. It is the end of the engineering phase and the start of the flight testing phase."[26]

On 7 April 2010, the HB-SIA conducted an 87-minute test flight, piloted by Markus Scherdel. This flight reached an altitude of 1,200 m (3,937 ft).[27][28] On 28 May 2010, the aircraft made its first flight powered entirely by solar energy, charging its batteries in flight.[29]

First overnight flight

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On 8 July 2010, the HB-SIA achieved the world's first manned 26-hour solar-powered flight.[30][31][32] The airplane was flown by André Borschberg, and took off at 6:51 a.m. Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) on 7 July from Payerne Air Base, Switzerland. It returned for a landing the following morning at 9:00 a.m. local time.[33] During the flight, the plane reached a maximum altitude of 8,700 m (28,500 ft).[34] At the time, the flight was the longest and highest ever flown by a manned solar-powered aircraft; these records were officially recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in October 2010.[35][36]

International and intranational flights

Belgium and France (2011)
The Solar Impulse aircraft at Brussels Airport in May 2011

On 13 May 2011 at 21:30 local time, HB-SIA landed at Brussels Airport, after completing a 13-hour flight from its home base in Switzerland. It was the first international flight by the Solar Impulse, which flew at an average altitude of 6,000 ft (1,800 m) for a distance of 630 km (391 mi), with an average speed of 50 km/h (31 mph). The aircraft's slow cruising speed required operating at a mid-altitude, allowing much faster air traffic to be routed around it.[37] The aircraft was piloted by Andre Borschberg. The project's other co-founder, Bertrand Piccard, said in an interview after the landing: "Our goal is to create a revolution in the minds of people...to promote solar energies – not necessarily a revolution in aviation."[38][39]

A second international flight to the Paris Air Show was attempted on 12 June 2011, but the plane turned back and returned to Brussels, due to adverse weather conditions.[40] In a second attempt on 14 June, André Borschberg successfully landed the aircraft at Paris' Le Bourget Airport at 9:15 pm after a 16-hour flight.[41]

First intercontinental flight (2012)

On 5 June 2012, the Solar Impulse successfully completed its first intercontinental flight, a 19-hour trip from Madrid, Spain, to Rabat, Morocco.[5] During the first leg of the flight from Payerne, Switzerland, to Madrid, the aircraft broke several further records for solar flight, including the longest solar-powered flight between pre-declared waypoints (1,099.3 km (683 mi)) and along a course (1,116 km (693 mi)).[42]

United States (2013)
The Solar Impulse aircraft on display at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, on 14 July 2013

On 3 May 2013, the plane began its cross-US flight with a journey from Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona. Successive legs of the flight took the Solar Impulse to Dallas-Fort Worth airport, Lambert–St. Louis International Airport, an overnight stop at Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport; it concluded at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on 6 July. Each flight leg took between 19 and 25 hours, with multi-day stops in each city (except Cincinnati) between flights.[43]

After the first leg to Phoenix,[6] the aircraft completed the second leg of its trip on 23 May, landing at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. This flight, which covered 1,541 kilometres (958 mi), set several new world distance records in solar aviation.[44][45][46][47][48] On 4 June, the plane landed in St. Louis, Missouri.[49] It departed for Washington DC on 14 June, stopping overnight in Cincinnati, Ohio, to change pilots and avoid strong winds.[50] On 16 June, the plane landed at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia.[51] On 6 July 2013, following a lengthy layover in Washington, Solar Impulse completed its cross-country journey, landing at New York City's JFK International Airport at 11:09 p.m. EDT.[7][52] The landing occurred three hours earlier than originally intended, because a planned flyby of the Statue of Liberty was cancelled due to damage to the covering on the left wing.[7] The aircraft was placed on public display at JFK after its landing. HB-SIA was disassembled in the USA and brought back to Dübendorf Air Base (ICAO: LSMD) on 5 August 2013 by a Cargolux B747F. Thereafter, HB-SIA remained in storage in a hangar at Dübendorf AFB.

Detailed route

Source: [53]

Leg Start Stop Origin Destination Distance Flight time Avg. speed Max altitude Pilot
1  3 May 2013, 06:12 PDT (UTC-7)  4 May 2013, 00:30 MST (UTC-7) Moffet Field, California (KNUQ) Phoenix, Arizona (KPHX)  km 18h 18min  km/h  ft ( m) Bertrand Piccard
2 22 May 2013, 04:47 MST (UTC-7) 23 May 2013, 01:08 CDT (UTC-5) Phoenix, Arizona (KPHX) Dallas, Texas (KDFW) 1541 km 18h 21min André Borschberg
3  3 Jun 2013, 04:06 CDT (UTC-5)  4 Jun 2013, 01:28 CDT (UTC-5) Dallas, Texas (KDFW) Saint Louis, Missouri (KSTL) 1040 km 21h 22min 49 km/h Bertrand Piccard
4 14 Jun 2013, 05:01 CDT (UTC-5) 14 Jun 2013, 20:15 EDT (UTC-4) Saint Louis, Missouri (KSTL) Cincinnati, Ohio (KLUK) 15h 14min André Borschberg
5 15 Jun 2013, 10:10 EDT (UTC-4) 16 Jun 2013, 00:15 EDT (UTC-4) Cincinnati, Ohio (KLUK) Washington, DC (KIAD) 14h 5min Bertrand Piccard
6  6 July 2013, 04:56 EDT (UTC-4)  7 July 2013, 00:15 EDT (UTC-4) Washington, DC (KIAD) New York City, New York (KJFK) 19h 19min André Borschberg

HB-SIB (Solar Impulse 2)

HB-SIB.

Construction history

Construction of the second Solar Impulse aircraft, carrying the Swiss registration HB-SIB, started in 2011. Completion was initially planned for 2013, with a 25-day circumnavigation of the globe planned for 2014. However, a structural failure of the aircraft's main spar occurred during static tests in July 2012, leading to delays in the flight testing schedule to allow for repairs. HB-SIB's first flight occurred at Payerne aerodrome on 2 June 2014.[54]

Design

The wingspan of HB-SIB is 71.9 m (236 ft), slightly less than that of an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner,[24] but unlike the 500-ton A380, the carbon-fibre Solar Impulse weighs only 2.3 tonnes (5,100 lb), little more than an average automobile. It features a larger, non-pressurized cockpit and advanced avionics, including an autopilot to allow for multi-day transcontinental and trans-oceanic flights.[11] Supplemental oxygen and various other environmental support systems allow the pilot to cruise at an altitude of 12,000 metres (39,000 ft).[24]

Specifications

Data from Solar Impulse Project[12]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 1Take-off speed: 35 kilometres per hour (22 mph)

Performance

Operational history

HB-SIB was first publicly displayed on 9 April 2014.[12] Its inaugural flight took place on 2 June 2014, piloted by Markus Scherdel.[55] The aircraft averaged a ground speed of 30 knots, and reached an altitude of 5,500 feet.[56] The first night flight was completed on 26 October 2014, and the aircraft reached its maximum altitude during a flight on 28 October 2014.

Circumnavigation flight (Round the World 2015)

Due to the repair work to the aircraft's main spar, the plane's circumnavigation of the Earth was rescheduled from 2012 to March 2015.[57] The flight is expected to circle the world in the northern hemisphere; the closest it will get to the equator will be a flyby of Honolulu at 21.3° N.[58] 12 stops are planned to allow the alternation of pilots Borschberg and Piccard, and the plane is expected to cruise at between 50 and 100 kilometers per hour – usually at the slower end of that range at night to save power.[19] The departure and arrival point are set to be Abu Dhabi.[58] The aircraft was delivered to Masdar in Abu Dhabi for the World Future Energy Summit in late January 2015,[59] and it began the circumnavigation on 9 March 2015.[8][60] The legs of the flight crossing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are the longest and are each expected to take about five days, covering a distance of up to 8,500 kilometres (5,270 miles).[19][9]

Detailed route

Source: [60]

Leg Start Origin Destination Distance Flight time Avg. speed Pilot
1 9 March 2015 03:12 UTC United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi, UAE Oman Muscat, Oman 733 km[citation needed] 13h 1' 56.3 km/h (30.4 kn) André Borschberg
2 10 March 2015 02:35 UTC Oman Muscat, Oman India Ahmedabad, India 1434 Kms. Bertrand Piccard
3 India Ahmedabad, India India Varanasi, India
4 India Varanasi, India Myanmar Mandalay, Myanmar
5 Myanmar Mandalay, Myanmar China Chongqing, China
6 China Chongqing, China China Nanjing, China
7 China Nanjing, China United States Hawaii, USA
8 United States Hawaii, USA United States Phoenix, USA
9 United States Phoenix, USA United States TBD (mid-USA)
10 United States TBD (mid-USA) United States New York, USA
11 United States New York, USA TBD (Southern Europe or Morocco)
12 TBD (Southern Europe or Morocco) United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi, UAE

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

References

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  2. ^ "A Speck in the Sky". New York Times. 21 March 1999. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
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External links

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