A Brief History
On July 26, 2016, engineer André Borschberg and psychiatrist and balloonist Bertrand Piccard, both from Switzerland, made history with their solar powered airplane, Solar Impulse, when they completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a solar powered fixed wing aircraft.
Digging Deeper
Solar Impulse was the second plane of that name, sometimes called Solar Impulse 2. A single seat monoplane with four electric motors each powering a propeller fed by electricity from photovoltaic cells on the wings, the plane is capable of cruising at 56 mph, slowing to 37 mph at night, with a max speed of 87 mph. Incredibly, the 5100 pound plane can reach an altitude of 39,000 feet and has a wingspan of 236 feet.
The historic flight began on March 9, 2015, and was made in a series of 17 flights, the longest of which lasted over 117 hours and was non-stop from Japan to Hawaii, a distance of 4481 nautical miles!
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Are solar airplanes in our future?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Jones, Brian and Bertrand Piccard. Around the World in 20 Days: The Story of Our History-Making Balloon Flight. Wiley, 1999.
Zarshenas, Pourya. Exploring the Concept of a Solar-Powered Airbus Passenger Plane: A Revolutionary Approach to Sustainable Aviation. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2023.
