Solar airplane finally successful

Solar energy is renewable energy and therefore reliable because it will never run out.  The airplane, a very costly flying vehicle which generally uses a special fuel (non-renewable) called aviation fuel will now be supported with full solar energy resource.

The very first solar powered aircraft was flown in California, USA (In 1974). The plane was called Sunrise I designed by R.J Boucher. But the plane got damaged 3 – 4 hours in winter when it got intercepted by sandstorm. That gave rise to Sunrise II the following year 1975. This was an improvement on Sunrise I. After several tests it was also damaged due to failure in command and control system.

Moreover, Bruss in Germany (1975) was working on a solar airplane without any idea on Boucher’s solar aircraft. Therefore, that became the first solar plane invented in Europe. Several years passed by with efforts coming from various engineers and researchers. In 2003, Solar Impulse of Switzerland started a solar plane project. This project was worked on by 40 scientists from various Universities and 25 specialists; they worked on this solar airplane of 2000kg and 80m wingspan.

Solar airplanes will be very important aircraft to be used for planetary exploration.

This solar plane has been predicted to be useful for Mars planet exploration and red planet.  After seven years of trial and error, and struggle to manufacture a solar reliable airplane Solar Impulse of Switzerland came out successfully.

The maiden flight together with a test pilot, Markus Scherdel on board took off on April 7, 2010. A first night flight ever on July 8, 2010 was made with CEO and co-founder of Solar Impulse project, Andre Borschberg as pilot for over 26 hours of non-stop flight time. He reached an altitude of 8720m (above sea level) and with exactly 26 hours 10min 19 seconds of flight time. The solar plane comprised of 12,000 solar panels built into its gigantic 63.4 meter wing. The solar airplane has gone on to fly internationally on May 12, 2011. This is an awesome invention and will soon fly commercial.

One main advantage the solar airplane has over the traditional plane is that you don’t have to land to refuel.

By Joshua Anquandah

Email: [email protected]