Swiss pilots attempt first around-the-world solar flight

[hangar18]

A Swiss pilot has begun the first ever attempt to fly around the world in a plane propelled only by the sun.

André Borschberg and his compatriot Bertrand Piccard will take turns piloting the single seater Solar Impulse 2 for 21,747 miles (35,000km) over 12 legs, including gruelling five- to six-day stints across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The entire journey will take five months.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/08/swiss-pilots-attempt-worlds-first-around-world-solar-flight

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[NUFCrichard]

A Swiss pilot has begun the first ever attempt to fly around the world in a plane propelled only by the sun.

André Borschberg and his compatriot Bertrand Piccard will take turns piloting the single seater Solar Impulse 2 for 21,747 miles (35,000km) over 12 legs, including gruelling five- to six-day stints across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The entire journey will take five months.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/08/swiss-pilots-attempt-worlds-first-around-world-solar-flight

I saw a documentary about this yeesterday, it seems pretty pointless.  The pilot has been around the world in a hot air baloon before (also pointless) but sees this as a great step forward in solar powered flight, even though it can only carry two people, is incredibly slow and can't be scaled up.

Solar panels on planes seems like a good idea to help power some simple electronics on board, it won't even offer enough energy to really help fly a jet though. It's good advertising for Breitling though and good for the adverturers ego no doubt.

[patt0]

A Swiss pilot has begun the first ever attempt to fly around the world in a plane propelled only by the sun.

André Borschberg and his compatriot Bertrand Piccard will take turns piloting the single seater Solar Impulse 2 for 21,747 miles (35,000km) over 12 legs, including gruelling five- to six-day stints across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The entire journey will take five months.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/08/swiss-pilots-attempt-worlds-first-around-world-solar-flight

I saw a documentary about this yeesterday, it seems pretty pointless.  The pilot has been around the world in a hot air baloon before (also pointless) but sees this as a great step forward in solar powered flight, even though it can only carry two people, is incredibly slow and can't be scaled up.

Solar panels on planes seems like a good idea to help power some simple electronics on board, it won't even offer enough energy to really help fly a jet though. It's good advertising for Breitling though and good for the adverturers ego no doubt.

This also helped in other things like energy efficiency, and that is apparently one of the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions according to the article. But I think it will also bring more attention to what can be done with alternative sources of power. And even if it can't be scaled up for bigger airplanes for now, it's a step in that direction.

[Possum577]

Wow, this is cool. Is there a site from which we can track their progress? It's odd that the trip will take 5 months. If they can cross the Atlantic/Pacific in 5/6 days why not do longer stretches. And if they only have 12 legs they must be taking a lot of time off in between legs for some reason. It would be more impressive if they did it straight through with minimal stops.

Powered by the sun is the real point here, very cool.

[Agestorzrxx]

Good luck to them. Progress is step by step; no one can expect too much of the flight. Particularly the North Pacific segment that will be tricky. Someone else will try the same route will fewer stopovers, another will beat the time...