Solar-Powered aircraft readies to make first trans-Mediterranean flight
We’ve noticed that the future of Air travel is surely looking to go into newer heights what with invisible jets and sonic aircrafts being planned. Now a team of Swiss engineers have announced their plans to fly the world’s most advanced solar-powered airplane across the Mediterranean in 2012, then around the world in 2014. After a successful flight to Belgium and France, the team is considering flying to Morocco next year. The biggest challenge for the pilot and engineers will be the planes sensitivity to turbulence and will also have to remain airborne for 48 hours. Pilot Andre Borschberg told the Associated Press: “We’d like to be able to do flights for two days, two nights, which is a big challenge for only one person on board.”
Last year, Borschberg completed a 26-hour nonstop test to prove that the 12,000 solar cells attached to the Solar Impulse’s 207-foot wingspan can absorb enough sunlight to keep the four-engine plane in the air through the night. Now to keep it going for another 24 hours!