A PLANE powered only by the Sun has completed the first leg of a journey
that aims to cross the US.
Solar Impulse, as the vehicle is known, took off from San Francisco, California, on Friday and landed in Phoenix, Arizona, some 18 hours later.
The craft will stop over in Dallas, St Louis, Washington DC and New York in the coming weeks.
The plane has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340 but it weighs just 1.6 tonnes.
It has already made a day-and-night flight lasting more than 26 hours, and the team aims to eventually circumnavigate the globe in 2015.
Pilot Bertrand Piccard landed having used only three-quarters of the plane's battery power.
"It's a little bit like being in a dream," Piccard said as he stepped on the tarmac.
The plane's creators, Piccard and fellow pilot Andre Borschberg, said the trip is the first attempt by a solar aeroplane capable of flying day and night without fuel to fly across America.
But more important than marking another aviation milestone, Piccard said that he hopes the journey will provide an exponential boost for interest in renewable energy and clean technologies.
"If an aeroplane can fly day or night with no fuel, just on the sun's power, of course it means that everybody in daily life can use this technology for his house, for heating and cooling systems, for lighting, for cars, for trucks. There's so much we can do now to have a cleaner future," Piccard said.
The plane, which has previously impressed audiences in Europe, is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover massive wings and charge its batteries.
The delicate, single-seat Solar Impulse flies around 65km/h and can't go through clouds. It weighs about as much as a car, making it vulnerable to bad weather.
Its average speed for the first leg of the trip was about 110km/h with a tail wind, Borschberg said. Ideally, the plane climbs up to about 8230 metres or so during the day to collect solar energy and charge the batteries.
Solar Impulse, as the vehicle is known, took off from San Francisco, California, on Friday and landed in Phoenix, Arizona, some 18 hours later.
The craft will stop over in Dallas, St Louis, Washington DC and New York in the coming weeks.
The plane has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340 but it weighs just 1.6 tonnes.
It has already made a day-and-night flight lasting more than 26 hours, and the team aims to eventually circumnavigate the globe in 2015.
Pilot Bertrand Piccard landed having used only three-quarters of the plane's battery power.
"It's a little bit like being in a dream," Piccard said as he stepped on the tarmac.
The plane's creators, Piccard and fellow pilot Andre Borschberg, said the trip is the first attempt by a solar aeroplane capable of flying day and night without fuel to fly across America.
But more important than marking another aviation milestone, Piccard said that he hopes the journey will provide an exponential boost for interest in renewable energy and clean technologies.
"If an aeroplane can fly day or night with no fuel, just on the sun's power, of course it means that everybody in daily life can use this technology for his house, for heating and cooling systems, for lighting, for cars, for trucks. There's so much we can do now to have a cleaner future," Piccard said.
The plane, which has previously impressed audiences in Europe, is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover massive wings and charge its batteries.
The delicate, single-seat Solar Impulse flies around 65km/h and can't go through clouds. It weighs about as much as a car, making it vulnerable to bad weather.
Its average speed for the first leg of the trip was about 110km/h with a tail wind, Borschberg said. Ideally, the plane climbs up to about 8230 metres or so during the day to collect solar energy and charge the batteries.
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