TechLahore

Solar Impulse HB-SIA - sailing through the atmosphere on sun power

News.com reports that a new Swiss aircraft will be the first to fly night and day without the need for any external source of energy. All its power needs will be met by the nearly 12,000 solar cells mounted on top of its wings. And those are pretty large wings too, mind you. The span is about the same as a Boeing 747, which stands at about 229 feet.

Borschberg and Piccard (no, not Jean-luc), the project promoters, will be taking the HB-SIA for a test spin this year, followed by a second flight in 2010. Soon after, in 2012, they intend to unveil the next generation of their solar powered marvel, in which they hope to fly around the world.

According to C|Net’s news.com:

“On the horizon in 2012, Piccard and Borschberg plan to fly the next generation of the Solar Impulse, the HB-SIB, around the world in 36 hours. That will make another global trip for adventurer Piccard, who in 1990 piloted the first round-the-world hot-air balloon flight with his Orbiter 3.”

More power (non pun intended!) to them! Meanwhile, we’re still trying to figure out why the infrastructure costs for solar still run almost 1.5 times those of wind. Has solar finally arrived? The solar powered plane helps, but maybe what we really need is a really cheap solar cell…

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