- Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range solar-powered aircraft project developed at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The project eventually hopes to achieve the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power.
- The wing span is greater than an Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airliner, but the carbon-fibre ensures a weight little less than an automobile.
- Carbon fiber structure, propulsion chain, flight instrumentation have been incorporated to save energy, to resist the hostile conditions at high altitudes.
- The purpose was to demonstrate the feasibility of the entire program by constructing the first ever whole day-and-night flight without a fuel.
- The lessons learnt were implemented upon the next version, Solar Impulse 2.
- At midday, each square meter of land surface receives, in the form of light energy, the equivalent of 1000 watts, or 1.3 horsepower of light power. Over 24 hours, this sun energy averages out at just 250W/m².
- With 200m² of photovoltaic cells and a 12 % total efficiency of the propulsion chain, the plane’s motors achieve an average power of 8 HP or 6kW.
- Other specifications:
- 4 brushless, sensorless electric engines.
- Monocrystalline silicon solar cells.
- Average flying speed: 70 km/h.
- Take off speed: 44 km/h
- Maximum cruising altitude: 8500m