The first ever night-time flight in a solar plane was completed in Switzerland today. The 26 hour continual flight was also the longest in a purely solar powered aircraft, the Solar Impulse, and bettered the last record breaking flight by the Impulse completed in April 2010.
"For 7 years now, the whole team has been passionately working to achieve this first decisive step of the project" said Andre Borchberg, CEO and co-founder of the project, a few minutes before easing himself into the cockpit for a flight expected to last until the next morning.
The Impulse took off from Payerne airbase with Andre Borchberg at the controls. It rose to its maximum height of 8,700 meters by around 16:00 using its 12,000 solar panels and enormous 63.4 meter wing span. The 400kg of onboard batteries were fully charged to allow the plane to be powered through the night once the sun had gone down.
"The prototype is ready to begin its journey through the night! It is now going to start a slow descent, which will bring it down to an altitude of 1,500 meters at around 23:00. From then on, the energy stored in the batteries is going to have to keep it up in the air until tomorrow morning", said a confident Claude Nicollier, head of the Solar Impulse test flight programme.
The team's aims during the project are fundamentally to demonstrate the potential of clean technologies and renewable energy, and then to promote them amongst the public. This flight was certainly a successful step forward in their mission.
"During the whole of the flight, I just sat there and watched the battery charge level rise and rise! Sitting in a plane producing more energy than it consumes is a fantastic feeling", said Andre Borschberg, CEO and co-founder of the Solar Impulse project from the cockpit.
The President of Solar Impulse said that the flight was a 'highly symbolic moment'. He stated that flying through the night by the use of solar power is a stunning manifestation of the potential that clean technologies are able to offer. This mission results in realisation of the potential of renewable energies, highlighting that a reduction in our society's dependence on fossil fuels can be made.
