Solar Plane Flies All Day, All Night, and, in Theory, Forever

If Icarus had only known about solar panels. The Solar Impulse, an experimental solar-powered plane, successfully completed a 26-hour overnight flight this week, reaching heights of 28,000 feet. The flight marked the longest and highest flight ever by a solar plane.

The HB-SIA solar plane took off from Payerne Air Base in Switzerland Wednesday morning, with the project's CEO and co-founder André Borscherg as the pilot. More than 26 hours later, Borscherg landed the aircraft safely before an enthusiastic crowd-successfully proving the project's slogan: "All that is impossible remains to be achieved."

"We don't need to prolong the flight," a project member tweeted. "Everything we wanted to prove with this flight has been proven ... and more."

The project set out to explore the boundaries of renewable energy sources, hoping to prove that a plane the size of an airliner could fly indefinitely without the use of fossil fuels. With a wingspan of 207 feet, and covered in more than 12,000 solar panels, the Solar Impulse is roughly the size of an Airbus A340.

"We are on the verge of the perpetual flight," stated Dr. Bertrand Piccard, according to the New York Times, the project's co-founder who became famous after completing the first non-stop flight around the world in a hot air balloon.

Solar Planes: Practical or Inspirational?

The Solar Impulse will not replace the Airbus A340 any time soon. With room for only the pilot and the weight of a mid-sized sedan, commercial applications for the new technology are a distant future.

However, as the Solar Impulse project website states, their team "believes in the force of symbols." A solar-powered plane symbolizes "a new page of aviation history with solar energy." The project is meant to ignite the imagination of the public, to alert the public to the possibilities and capabilities of solar power.

There are capabilities that still surprise the project's team. Even while cruising at the solar plane's maximum speed of 75 miles per hour, the mechanism collected more energy than it used -- 20 percent more than expected, making a strong case for the project's theory of perpetual flight.

Whether the technology can be applied to the commercial airline industry is yet to be seen. During Borscherg's 26-hour flight, he spent 10 hours in a minus-20 degrees Celsius cockpit. The temperature became so cold, the New York Times reported, that it made "his drinking water system freeze up and worse of all his iPod batteries die."

If Icarus Had Only Known About Solar Panels

In the Greek myth, Icarus attempts to escape from Crete on a pair of wings constructed by his father, Daedalus. He ignores his father's warnings about flying too close to the sun, the glue on his wings melts, and he tumbles to his death in the Icarian Sea.

Despite the slowing of world population growth, the affluence of the world's population continues to rise. More affluence means more planes. More planes, more fuel. More fuel from finite resources means greater dangers must be faced. More lives will be lost off coasts in explosions. More economic and environmental ruin will be sowed.

The Solar Impulse is not an immediate solution to the world's aviation needs. But, perhaps it is more practical in its vision than the current commercial aviation system.

Regardless of the Solar Impulse's practical applications, the project theoretically invented perpetual flight. It seems unfathomable not to be filled with a sense of awe and wonder.

Sources:

Solar Impulse

Solar Impulse Twitter

Yi Yang, Solar Plane Successfully Completes 26-Hour Test Flight, Epoch Times

Sharon Gaudin, Solar plane completes first night flight, Computer World

Alan Cowell, Solar-Powered Plane Flies for 26 Hours, New York Times

Chris Gaylord, Solar energy fuels experimental airplane all day, and all night, Christian Science Monitor