Ballooning pioneer unveils solar plane
GENEVA: Round-the-world ballooning pioneer Bertrand Piccard unveiled his solar aircraft in Switzerland on Friday, ready for another trend-setting round-the-world flight powered solely by the sun. The waspish prototype of Solar Impulse (SI), with the wingspan of a jumbo jet, was rolled out in front of 800 guests at an airfield near Zurich after six years of development.
Piccard and Briton Brian Jones achieved the first non-stop flight around the globe in the Orbiter balloon and the SI team are aiming to demonstrate that clean technology is not a pipedream. The Swiss adventurer said the idea emerged after that hot air balloon trip, when Orbiter was kept partly aloft by fuel canisters even if the wind ensured its progress. The seemingly flimsy carbon fibre concentrate of technology has a 63.4 metre wingspan but weighs little more than a medium-sized car.
Some 12,000 solar cells spread over its slender wings will fuel four tiny ten-horsepower electric motors, while 400 kilogrammes of batteries will keep it going overnight. afp
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| Sunday, May 20, 2007
