Solar Impulse, an experimental aircraft powered by sun’s energy, took off Saturday morning from Washington and heads to New York, on the last round of the U.S. cross-country flight from west to east. The pilots hope to fly over the Statue of Liberty on Saturday evening, reports AFP.
“It is the shortest flight in terms of distance, but the longest in terms of time,” said co-founder and CEO of the project, Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg.
“I have thought for a long time about this last stage of the project: how to introduce our experimental plane into an area where air traffic is most intense in the world? We hope to perform the Statue of Liberty flyover in the evening, we should do this sometimes between 22:00 and midnight,” said teammate Bertrand Piccard.
The flight can be tracked on the website live.solarimpulse.com.
Solar Impulse HB-SIA is 1600 kg in weight and made of carbon fiber. The outstanding aircraft has a wingspan of 63.4 meters, equivalent to that of a Boeing 747. It is powered by 12,000 photovoltaic cells that can produce enough electricity to charge the lithium battery that weighs 400 kg and provides energy to the four electric propeller engines.
This is the fifth stage of the U.S. crossing from west to east. the flight began on May 3, near San Francisco. The plane landed successively in Phoenix (Arizona), Dallas / Fort Worth (Texas), Saint Louis (Missouri), Cincinnati (Ohio) and Washington.
The two co-founders of the project, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, explained that they chose a 5-stage flight for security reasons.
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Before the last flight, the pilots recalled their best adventures while traveling on board first solar plane.
One of the best memories for Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard was flying over the Golden Gate Bridge in California, while compatriot Andre Borschberg highlighted the dangerous episodes, such as those when the wind threatened to deviate the solar plane from the scheduled route.
The U.S. crossing was “more difficult than we predicted due to the weather condition; there were many tornadoes and storms that led to delays or postponement of the flights,” said Piccard. The pilot expressed confidence that the U.S. authorities will give them permission to fly over the New York metropolis.
“Our goal is not only to cross the United States, but to show that this project is useful to society, to show people that world can be effective when using clean technologies,” said the Swiss pilot.
The first flight of the Solar Impulse took place in 2009. The following year, the airplane made a 26-hour-flight, to prove that it has the ability to accumulate enough energy over day and fly at night. In 2011 it made its first international flight between Belgium and France, and in June 2012 flew between Madrid and Rabat.
The two pilots intend to make a round-the-Earth flight in 2015.
