Solar-powered aircraft a little closer to reality

Indian engineers are showing a keen interest in becoming a part of aviation history being created in Zurich — of developing an aircraft that is expected to fly around the world without fuel and without polluting the environment. Once fully developed, the aircraft is expected to remain airborne, propelled by solar energy both during the day and at night.
“We receive a few letters every month from Indian students working on solar or renewable energies as also engineers.
There has been growing interest since we visited Delhi and Jaipur,” Phil Mundweller, Head, Media and External Communications, Solar Impulse, told Business Line.
However, at the moment, no Indian is a part of the 70-member team working on making the Solar Impulse project a reality. The aircraft is expected to take to the skies in 2012 and cover the globe in five stages.
“Each leg of the journey should be of about 8,000 km as we try and go around the world. The route has not yet been firmed up but we will land on all the five continents,” Mr Bertrand Piccard, the driving force behind Solar Impulse, said.
The current plan is to have stops in Europe, the Middle East, China, the Pacific (possibly in Hawaii) and in the United States. Admitting that it is “far too early” to talk about this technology being used in commercial airlines that fly millions of people around the globe everyday, Mr Piccard said: “What is being done is not a revolution. We try and open a new path and see what happens. We do not claim that commercial aviation will run on solar energy in the next couple of years.
“Solar Impulse is not an aircraft but an attempt to show the world what can be achieved by renewable energies and new technologies.”
The Solar Impulse project involves an aircraft that weighs 1,600 kg, approximately the weight of a family car, but with a wing-span of an Airbus A-340 aircraft to minimise induced drag and build a super-light aircraft that will have the power of a scooter.
The upper wing surface is covered with a skin of encapsulated solar cells, while the wing under-sides is coated with a high resistance flexible film.
To avoid the additional weight of a pressurised cabin, limit energy consumption, and reduce control panel assistance, the aircraft's maximum altitude will be limited to 8,500 meters.
The idea is to take off one hour before sunrise, climb to the maximum altitude and not to use energy stock in the battery when the sun goes down but go down to an altitude of about 1,000 meters.
21/12/09 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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Categories: Foreign Dec 2009, New Dec 2009