Solar-power plane begins US crossing
A solar-powered airplane developers will eventually pilot around the world landed safely in Phoenix on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the US using only the sun’s energy, project organisers said.
The plane, dubbed the Solar Impulse, took 18 hours and 18 minutes to reach Phoenix on the slow- speed flight, completing the first of five legs with planned stops in Dallas, St Louis, and Washington on the way to a final stop in New York.
The spindly-looking plane barely hummed as it took off on Friday morning from Moffett Field, a joint civil- military airport near San Francisco.
The aircraft landed in predawn darkness at the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, said a statement on the Solar Impulse’s website.
The flight crew plans pauses at each stop to wait for favourable weather.
It hopes to reach John F Kennedy International Airport in New York in about two months.
Swiss pilots and co-founders of the project, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, will take turns flying the plane, which is built with a single-seat cockpit.
Piccard was at the controls for the first flight to Arizona.
The lightweight carbon fibre Solar Impulse has a wingspan of a jumbo jet and the weight of a small car, and from a distance, resembles a giant floating insect.
The plane was designed for flights of up to 24 hours at a time and is a test model for a more advanced aircraft the team plans to build to circumnavigate the globe in 2015.
The aircraft made its first intercontinental flight, from Spain to Morocco, last June.
It is propelled by energy collected from 12,000 solar cells built into the wings that simultaneously recharge four large batteries with a storage capacity equivalent to a Tesla electric car that allow it to fly after dark.
The lightweight design and wingspan allow the plane to conserve energy, but make it vulnerable.
The aircraft cannot fly in strong wind, fog, rain or clouds.
The plane can climb to 28,000ft and flies at an average of 43 miles per hour (69km/h).
The project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of €90mn and has involved engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.
