{"id":2447,"date":"2015-07-12T23:30:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T02:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2015-07-12T23:32:09","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T02:32:09","slug":"solar-impulse-2-breaks-many-world-records-on-its-first-pacific-crossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/12\/solar-impulse-2-breaks-many-world-records-on-its-first-pacific-crossing\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Impulse 2 breaks many world records on its first Pacific crossing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"With<\/a>
With Swiss pilot Andr\u00e9 Borschberg at the control, Solar Impulse 2 is seen arriving in Hawaii on 3 July 2005 after its record crossing from Japan and 5 days and 5 nights of continuous flight over the Pacific Ocean ! \u00a9Solar Impulse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hawaii, USA, 11 July\u00a02015 – Attempting the first round the world solar flight, the airplane of Swiss explorers Bertrand Piccard and Andr\u00e9 Borschberg\u00a0has broken all distance and duration world records for solar\u00a0aviation (80 hours and 5,663 km) on 1st July. At the helm, Andr\u00e9 Borschberg also breaks the record for the longest\u00a0solo flight ever. By remaining airborne three consecutive days and nights, producing its own power with solar\u00a0energy, Solar Impulse 2 has proven that Bertrand Piccard’s vision of reaching unlimited endurance without\u00a0fuel was not a crazy dream.<\/p>\n

\"Bertrand<\/a>
Bertrand Piccard and Andr\u00e9 Borschberg celebrating the incredible 3 July 2015 success of Solar Impulse 2 in Hawaii. \u00a9Solar Impulse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By flying above the Pacific Ocean for over 80 hours, Andr\u00e9 Borschberg, co-founder, CEO and pilot of Solar\u00a0Impulse, has also achieved the longest non-stop solo flight without refuelling between Nagoya (Japan)\u00a0and Hawaii (USA) in terms of duration. An accomplishment exceeding the late US adventurer Steve Fossett’s flight\u00a0on board Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, who, in 2006, realized a 76 hours non-stop flight to circumnavigate the\u00a0globe. “Can you imagine that a solar powered airplane without fuel can now fly longer than a jet plane!”, said\u00a0Bertrand Piccard, initiator, chairman and alternate pilot of Solar Impulse. “This is a clear message that clean technologies\u00a0can achieve impossible goals!”<\/p>\n

\"nws_technology_150711-003\"<\/a>
For the long duration flights at high altitude on Solar Impulse 2, Bertrand Piccard and Andr\u00e9 Borschberg have to rely on a regular supply of oxygen, thus adding to the difficulty of their round the world flight. \u00a9Solar Impulse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andr\u00e9 Borschberg has endured true human, technical and operational challenges, navigating the high tech flying\u00a0laboratory alone in an unheated and unpressurized 3,8 cubic meter cockpit.\u00a0“The first 24 hours were very technical”, said Andr\u00e9 Borschberg, “but the second day was really getting me into\u00a0the mission. It took me a while to create a relationship of trust with the airplane, which allows me to rest and\u00a0eventually sleep by periods of 20 minutes with the autopilot. The experience of flight is so intense that I can\u00a0only focus on the present moment and discover how to deal with my own energy and mindset.”<\/p>\n

Bertrand is now set to continue later during August this epic ocean crossing to Phoenix, Arizona. The\u00a0journey will then take the two pilots, flying alternatively in the single seater cockpit, across the USA, the\u00a0Atlantic Ocean and back to Abu Dhabi where the journey started on 9 March last.<\/p>\n

\"Solar<\/a>
Solar Impulse 2 has a take-off mass of 2,000 kg. It is however a very big aircraft 21.85 m long and with a wingspan of 63.4 m. The huge wing contains 11,628 photovoltaic cells rated at 45 kW peak: 200 m2 (2,200 sq ft). They provide energy for the four electric motors providing 7.5 kW (10 HP) each. \u00a9Solar Impulse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite having completed the longest and most\u00a0difficult leg of the Round the World Solar\u00a0Flight,\u00a0\u00a0the solar powered airplane of Bertrand Piccard and Andr\u00e9 Borschberg has suffered battery\u00a0damages due to overheating.\u00a0During the first ascend on day one of the flight from Nagoya to Hawaii, the battery temperature\u00a0increased too much due to over insulation. And while the Mission Team was monitoring this very\u00a0closely from Monte Carlo during the mission leg, there\u00a0was no way to decrease the temperature for the\u00a0remaining\u00a0\u00a0duration\u00a0of the flight as each daily\u00a0\u00a0cycle\u00a0requires an ascend to 28\u2019000 feet and descend for\u00a0energy management issues.\u00a0The damage to certain parts of the batteries is irreversible and will require repairs and replacements\u00a0that will take several weeks to work through. In parallel at this time, the Solar Impulse engineering team is looking\u00a0at various options to better manage the cooling and heating process for very long flights. Thus\u00a0Solar Impulse does not see the possibility for any flights before 2 to 3 weeks at the earliest.<\/p>\n

By Leandro Maldonado<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hawaii, USA, 11 July\u00a02015 – Attempting the first round the world solar flight, the airplane of Swiss explorers Bertrand Piccard and Andr\u00e9 Borschberg\u00a0has broken all distance and duration world records for solar\u00a0aviation (80 hours and 5,663 km) on 1st July. At the helm, Andr\u00e9 Borschberg also breaks the record for the longest\u00a0solo flight ever. By<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[87,88,89,90],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-solar-impulse","tag-andre-borschberg","tag-world-record","tag-bertrand-piccard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2456,"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447\/revisions\/2456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinaero.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}