Ten years in the past on 26 July 2016, a brand new chapter in aviation historical past started as Photo voltaic Impulse 2 touched down in Abu Dhabi, efficiently finishing the first-ever circumnavigation of the globe with out utilizing a single drop of gasoline.
Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, who flew Photo voltaic Impulse 2 alternately over 17 legs, concluded an epic 42,000-kilometre journey that demonstrated the viability of renewable vitality for the way forward for flight.
Reliant solely on the ability of the solar through its 17,248 photovoltaic cells throughout the 72m wingspan, Photo voltaic Impulse 2’s exceptional journey took the 2 pioneering pilots around the globe throughout 555 hours of flight – throughout each day and evening.
The Photo voltaic Impulse 2 circumnavigation resulted in a number of FAI world data in electrical and solar-powered aeroplane courses. Notably, Borschberg’s lengthy length flight , Piccard’s Atlantic crossing distance and Piccard’s altitude document nonetheless stay unbeaten, ten years on. But Photo voltaic Impulse’s overriding goal was to not set data, however to showcase the alternatives for photo voltaic powered flight.
In an unique 10th anniversary interview with FAI, Piccard explains the origins of the Photo voltaic Impulse concept:
“Photo voltaic Impulse actually comes from my worry of operating wanting propane after I flew with Breitling Orbiter 3 in 1999… We had one eighth of the gasoline left to cowl the final quarter of the world. Due to a strong jet stream over the Atlantic, we made it, however there was solely 40 kg of gasoline disregarded of the three,700kg with which we started. The lesson is that this: it’s not the sky that’s the restrict, it’s the gasoline!
“That’s why I began to dream of flying with none gasoline.”
The venture was the end result of over a decade of analysis and improvement between Piccard and Borschberg and the Photo voltaic Impulse workforce. Following the success of the unique Photo voltaic Impulse inaugural evening flight in 2010, the Photo voltaic Impulse 2 was launched in 2014, setting the stage for the historic 2015-2016 circumnavigation. The journey was efficiently concluded on 26 July 2016 when Piccard landed the plane again the place the journey had began, in Abu Dhabi.
Whereas the unique Photo voltaic Impulse 2 plane was misplaced within the Gulf of Mexico in Might 2026 (whereas working because the unmanned drone Skydweller) it’s clear that the Photo voltaic Impulse 2 story will stay on as a actually exceptional innovation in harnessing renewable vitality for the way forward for aviation.
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