‘Solar Impulse’ test looms
The ‘Solar Impulse’, a new solar-powered plane, will be making its first journey across a runway today. The plane has already had full engine and computer tests. The plane is eventually set for a record around-the-world attempt.
The plane’s maiden flight is set for February, and a final version will attempt to cross the Atlantic in 2012. As wide as a jumbo jet, but weighing just 1,500kg (the size of a large car), it will be piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard.
‘It’s very exciting, we are moving now towards a very concrete phase,’ said Solar Impulse chief Andre Borschberg.
‘You have to realise this plane is quite special, you cannot just put it on the runway, apply full power and go in the air – it has to be done really step-by-step,’ he told BBC.
The Wright stuff
To that end, the team spent several days ramping up the engines to full power and doing ‘taxi tests’ of Thursday and Friday will give the test pilot a feeling for how the plane moves on the ground.
If the tests are successful, there will be a short hop in about 2 week’s time, which will be the next step.
‘We’ll take off at the beginning of the runway, fly a few metres above it – a bit like the Wright Brothers in 1903 – and then land again, to see how it behaves at the beginning of the flight.
‘If this is satisfactory we will dismantle it and transport it to [Payerne Air Force base in Switzerland] where we will do the real first flight of about 2 hours, in February.’
But each step will be a careful one, Mr Borschberg stressed.
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Its all in the manual they make you read before they download your being into those tiny bodies in those dark wombs.
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