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PAYERNE, Switzerland – A solar plane with wings as wide as a 747 and the power of a small motorboat took to the skies for the first time Wednesday, cruising a mile high at low speeds for nearly 1½ hours in a step toward becoming the first sun-powered aircraft to circle the world.
In its maiden test flight, “Solar Impulse” — designed by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard’s team — completed a series of turns, slip maneuvers and bank angles reaching 5 degrees. Most importantly, it proved able to take off and land.
The team plans to fly it around the world in 2012, the goal being to show that renewable energy can replace fossil fuel.
“There has never been an airplane of that kind that could fly — never an airplane so big, so light, using so little energy,” said Piccard, who in 1999 copiloted the first nonstop round-the-globe balloon flight. “So there were huge question marks for us.”
At a military airport in the Swiss countryside, the plane lifted off at a speed no faster than 28 mph after only a short acceleration on the runway. It slowly gained altitude above the green and beige fields, and disappeared eventually into the horizon as villagers watched from the nearest hills.
The descent was even slower, as the sun-powered craft hovered ahead of the runway for a couple of minutes before touching down to cheers from spectators.
The weather for the maiden flight was sunny, and there was little wind.
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The concept of a solar plane is just amazing and scary at the same time. Imagine running into some clouds and the plane just shuts down. I suppose there is backups systems though. Great beginning though.