Solar-Powered Plane to Begin Test Flights

February 15, 2010 —Producing an aircraft that will take off and fly, both day and night, entirely propelled by solar energy, will certainly be a feat. But before that feat can be achieved, the Solar Impulse team has to overcome another challenge - dismantling and then shipping the aircraft prototype to Payerne without breaking anything so they can begin test flights. “It’s no simple matter to transport something 20 meters long without really being able to touch it,” writes Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse president, on his blog. But the three sections of the wings arrived at Payerne without any breakage, thanks to a specially designed and built system that enabled them to transport the wings suspended in a container. Once the plane is reassembled, the prototype will begin official test flights in mid-March. The Solar Impulse team already knows that the plane will fly. The HB-SIA prototype left the ground for the first time on December 3, 2009 at the Dübendorf Airfield. As the aircraft gently took up speed, the huge wing of the Solar Impulse gradually rose into the air and flew some nearly 1,150 feet, or less than one quarter mile, at an altitude of one meter before landing. Piccard acknowledged "it's a long way between these initial tests and a circumnavigation of the world." But the team now has controllability, acceleration, braking and motor power tests behind them. Andre Borschberg, co-founder and CEO of Solar Impulse, said this "culmination of six years of intense work" has the team "ready to start the next phase — the actual flight tests." So far, the aircraft has performed without the solar panels, which have not yet been connected. Test flight plans in 2010 call for gradually increasing the flight duration toward the intermediate goal of flying through the night — a 36-hour flight and the equivalent of a complete day-night-day cycle — without any fuel. HB-SIA has the wingspan of an Airbus A340 (more than 200 feet) and the weight of a mid-sized car (about 4,000 pounds.) Its power will come from the 11,628 monocrystalline silicon cells in its wings.

The Solar Impulse HB-SIA became airborne for the first time on December 3, 2009, when it flew about one quarter mile at an altitude of one meter. Photo credit: Solar Impulse Markus Scherdel, the test pilot, smiles after completing a short “flea hop” in the Solar Impulse HB-SIA. Official flight tests will begin in mid-March. Photo credit: Solar Impulse

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