Do solar electric vehicles have a future…in the sky? Some innovative aero-engineers seem to think so, and they aim to prove the viability of their concept by flying across the U.S. using nothing but the sun for power. The Switzerland-based Solar Impulse team is aiming for make a sun-powered flight across the continental U.S. sometime in the next year.
Having already completed an inter-continental flight from Spain to Morocco earlier in the year, the Solar Impulse team is now setting their eyes on the birthplace of flight; America. Their lightweight solar airplane has a 200-foot wingspan and is powered by four 10-horsepower electric motors that give it a cruising speed of just 60 to 70 mph.
Doesn’t sound like much. But given that the Solar Impulse plane is powered by electricity pulled from the sun, I think Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, leaders of this project, deserve a fair amount of credit. Their ambitions to fly all the way around the world may have to wait a bit longer. But a transcontinental flight across the U.S. would drum up a lot of publicity and excitement for the world-hopping HB-SIA solar plane, which will feature an even bigger wingspan and a pressurized cockpit.
But will solar-powered flight ever be more than just a functional experiment?
Source: Wired
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