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| Solar Impulse 2 Over Abu Dhabi |
Solar Impulse 2 (Si2), the solar-powered aircraft, piloted by Bertrand Piccard (Who replaced Andre Borschberg in Cairo) arrived in Abu Dhabi tonight after completing a circumnavigation journey around the Earth.
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| Bertrand Piccard |
Starting last year, Si2 travelled without incident until leaving China, at which time the batteries overheated and necessitated a landing in Japan. This caused a delay for battery replacement etc. which, unfortunately, closed a convenient weather-window for crossing the Pacific Ocean.
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| Andre Borschberg |
The flight recommenced earlier this year, crossing the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. Arriving in Spain last week, preparations were made to complete the flight over the Mediterranean Sea, with a stop in Cairo.
A number of records were broken during the flight, the most impressive being the longest non-stop flight of five days (From Nagoya to Hawaii), not to mention the first solar-powered flight around the globe.
We must congratulate the team who made this historic flight possible and, now, wonder what comes next. Nevertheless, the sense of a great accomplishment is diminished when the aircraft stops every couple of days for approximately two weeks while waiting for ideal meteorological conditions.
Personally, it seems that the aircraft has proven that, with a few modifications, it could accomplish a non-stop circumnavigation journey … sponsors willing.
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| Two distinguished Adventurers |
This flight is an accomplishment demonstrating important engineering and technological accomplishments as well as human endurance. Last week another person drifted around the world in a hot air balloon in just 11 days.
ReplyDeleteQuestion - what are the toilet facilities for such activities.
You are correct to point out the technological accomplishments demonstrated by the Solar Impulse 2 flight, but the purpose was to demonstrate the possibilities of ecological engineering, probably, the most important field of research facing us today. Obviously, oil has multiple uses, but do we really need to use it as an energy resource, when the sun's energy is almost infinite.
ReplyDeleteThe person who recently encircled the Earth in a ballon in 11 days should be commended but, remember that he used gas to do it. Remember, also, that Bertrand Piccard (One of the Solar Impulse pilots) was the first to fly non-stop around the Earth in 19 days in 1999.
It is not simply a matter of breaking records, although I would be very excited to see them attempt to fly a non-stop circumnavigation flight.