Solar Impulse – Solar Powered Flight

Solar Impulse is a next generation solar powered flight. The motto of this project is to make use of freely available solar energy to travel around the world and to maintain clean, non polluted environment. This project was started by two Swiss people and till now there are two versions of flights available. The first flight Solar Impulse 1 was tested during 2009 and the second flight solar Impulse 2 has completed its journey around the world on July 26, 2016. Solar Impulse 2 has traveled 42000 kms around the world without any fuel. Impulse 2 started its journey from Abu Dhabi (UAE) and traveled through India, Myanmar, China, Japan, US, Spain, Egypt and back to Abu Dhabi.

This project was started by Swiss Engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard. The Solar Impulse 2 has set many milestones like longest break free flights without using fuel and no pollution to the environment.

 

“The adventure began with Bertrand Piccard’s vision that clean technologies and energy efficiency can reduce our emissions and improve our quality of life. It led up to the attempt of the First Round-The-World Solar Flights, with in July 2015 André Borschberg’s 5-day 5-night record-breaking flight from Japan to Hawaii, using only the power of the sun. Not sci-fi, but eccentric enough to appeal to the people’s emotions and get their Adrenalin pumping. It would have made a great Jules Verne story a few decades back.”