MANNED SOLAR FLIGHT PLAN

The first important breakthroughs in solar-powered flight came from Solar Challenger, Helios and Pathfinder. They were pioneered by Aerovironment, the company founded by the late, great Paul MacCready.

Groundbreaking solar plane to test flight in 2008
November 5, 2007 (AFP via Yahoo News)

WHO
Round-the-world ballooning pioneer Bertrand Piccard will pilot.

An artist's depiction of Solar Impulse in flight.

WHAT
Swiss project leaders announced that “Solar Impulse,” has scheduled its first fully solar-powered flight. To be piloted by Piccard, the Impulse team hopes to see the plane cross the Atlantic and then circumvent the globe.

WHEN
The 1st flight will be in the autumn of 2008. A 36-hour flight, testing the plane’s ability to draw on stored solar power during the night, is scheduled for 2009. A trans-Atlantic crossing would follow in 2011 and a flight around the world would follow that.

Solar Callenger, the first piloted, fully solar-powered aircraft to take off and land on its own. First flown by Marshall MacCready, Janice Brown flew it across the English Channel in 1981.

WHERE
- The first flight will take place at a runway in Duebendorf, Switzerland, where a prototype is being built. The plane will be just a few feet off the ground for that flight.
- 150 specialists from 6 countries are designing and building the plane.

WHY
- Solar Impulse will break new ground in aerodynamics, control systems, energy efficiency, materials and structure.
The aircraft will cost 70 million-euros (94 million-dollar).
It will have a wingspan the size of a 580-tonne Airbus A380 but will weigh only 2 tons because it will be built of thin, super-lightweight carbon sheets stretched in 20 metre (66 foot) lengths.

No need to know the language to see what the plan is. (click to enlarge)

- It will be powered by 250 square metres (2,690 square feet) of solar panels.
One of the biggest challenges will be to store enough solar energy to fly in darkness with overburdening the plane with heavy energy storage systems. It has been done by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) but the weight of a pilot complicates the design.

QUOTES
Andre Borschberg, project chief executive: "Anything that doesn't break is potentially too heavy…"