Sun-powered plane debuts in Switzerland

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-26 23:47

The first test flights will be later this year, with a complete night voyage planned for 2010.

"It will be like the Wright brothers," said the 51-year-old Piccard, who comes from a long line of adventurers. His late father Jacques plunged deeper beneath the ocean than any other man, and grandfather Auguste was the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere.

Bertrand Piccard (R), pilot and president of Solar Impulse pose after the unveiling ceremony of the solar-powered 61 metres (200 feet) wingspan HB-SIA prototype airplane at the airport in Duebendorf near Zurich June 26, 2009. [Agencies]

"We will start one meter (yard) above the ground, then three meters, then five meters," he said. "When that works, we'll be able to take it to altitude."

One thing a solar plane cannot handle is bad weather. Because the solar panels are needed for day flying and for charging the 400-kilogram lithium batteries that power the plane by night, it relies on sunshine.

"We'll certainly avoid stormy situations," Borschberg said. "We'll avoid rain as well, because you cannot collect energy in this weather. So the challenge for the team will be to find a path that is favorable. We've been training for five years."

Piccard says the plane should also serve as an inspiration for inventors and manufacturers of everyday machines and appliances.

"If an aircraft is able to fly day and night without fuel, propelled solely by solar energy," Piccard said, "let no one come and claim that it is impossible to do the same thing for motor vehicles, heating and air conditioning systems and computers."

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