Solar-powered Plane Begins Its Round The World Trip

Traveling by plane is probably one of the quickest ways to get from country to country, although some environmentalists aren’t too thrilled about the carbon emissions from planes. Unfortunately that is the state of the industry at the moment, but could solar-powered planes be the way of the future?

Looking to test that possibility, a Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft had recently taken off from the Abu Dhabi airport. The plane will be flown by Solar Impulse founder André Borschberg and will see him trade-off piloting with Solar Impulse’s other co-founder Bertrand Piccard during their 22,000 mile journey around the world, all the while flying while relying on solar energy to keep their plane moving.

The plane that they will be piloting is the Solar Impulse 2, a larger version of the company’s first solar-powered plane from 5 years ago. It has a wingspan of 235 feet and is larger than the Boeing 747. There will be 17,248 solar cells built into the wings that will be able to gather energy for four electrical motors that will power the plane’s propellers.

The plane will be constantly changing altitudes and will go as high as 28,000 feet during the day to catch the sun’s rays, and will dip to as low as 5,000 feet while flying over the ocean at night. According to Borshberg, “It is also exciting because you know, you simulate, you calculate, you imagine, but there is nothing like testing and doing it. I am sure we are all confident and hopefully we will be able to see each other here in five months.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Green, Transportation
Tags: Solar