Solar Impulse 2

[Barthe Hogenboom]

I heard on the news

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is going to take off soon. Their

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says 9 March.
[imgpop]http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Solar-Impulse-2-640x353.jpg[/imgpop]

Solar Impulse is the only airplane of perpetual endurance, able to fly day and night on solar power, without a drop of fuel.

Our challenge is to attempt the First Round-The-World Solar Flight in 2015. A way for Bertrand Piccard, André Borschberg and their team to demonstrate how pioneering spirit, innovation and clean technologies can change the world

And you, would you like to be a part of it ?

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:

Takeoff is currently scheduled for Monday March 9th. That first leg will be a short one, just a few hundred miles to Oman. Future legs will be longer with stops in Nanjing, Hawaii, New York, North Africa, and more. It would be more impressive if the plane managed the trip in one go, but this is still a huge technical achievement. Future solar aircraft might not need checkups every few thousand miles, but humans will still like to get out and stretch their legs.

The older Impulse, but a nice flightsim picture:
[imgpop]http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/solar-impluse/images/2-solar-impulse.jpg[/imgpop]The Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype has a similar wingspan to that of an Airbus A340

The page to follow it all:

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A glimpse of the(possible) future of flight. Although it will be a while before regular solar powered passenger flights are possible...