After a successful participation at the Paris Air Show 2011 in Le Bourget the solar plane « Solar Impulse » is preparing the flight back to Payerne in Switzerland its home base by the end of the week 26.
Solar Impulse was the Special Guest of the famous Air Show and captured the attention of the thousands of visitors and aviation professionals.
Solar Impulse is the manned solar plane whose final objective is to achieve a complete roundtrip flight around the Earth by 2014 completely powered by the sun energy. Its wings are covered by 12 000 photovoltaic cells in 145 micron monocrystalline silicon combining lightness and efficiency. Their efficiency could have been even higher, like the panels used in space, but their weight would then have penalized the plane during night flight. This phase being the most critical, the main constraint is the one imposed by the batteries that are still heavy and require a drastic reduction in weight and size, so as to optimize the whole energy chain and to maximize the aerodynamic performance provided by a large wing span and a wing profile designed for low speeds.
Source: Solar Impulse
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