Solar Powered Airplane Lands in New York on Historic Flight Around the World

NEW YORK What started as a sky-is-the-limit dream for two Swiss explorer/entrepreneurs is now one giant, soaring, fuel-free, #futureisclean reality. Bertrand Piccard (@bertrandpiccard) André Borschberg (@andreborschberg) and their innovative solar plane, Solar Impulse 2, reached a milestone Saturday as it completed a trip across the United States. The solar-powered airplane on a globe-circling voyage that began in the United Arab Emirates more than a year ago. The Swiss-made plane landed at John F. Kenney International Airport at 4 a.m. after a 4 hour 41 minute flight of about 165 miles from Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania. Its trip across the U.S. mainland began April 24, when Solar Impulse landed in San Francisco from Hawaii. The aviation industry told them #solarimpulse was an impossible project so they built their own team & found new solutions. Read more from their logbook here. Have you ever seen bicycles assist an airplane landing …
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The Future Is Clean – Solar Impulse 2 Plane Campaign

On March 9th 2015 the revolutionary airplane named “Solar Impulse 2” launched its first leg of its 35,000 mile trip around the world to help raise awareness of the Future is Clean Campaign.    Starting off in Abu Dhabi the plane is set to stop in various global locations and is being tracked for audiences online.  The Solar Impulse 2 (aka Si2)is a lot larger than its predecessor the Solar Impulse 1, which was the prototype that  set several solar powered flight world records in 2013.  This version of the aircraft is wider than a 747 Jumbo Jet with a wingspan of 72 metres (236.22 feet) and yet is still a light 2.3 tonnes.  It’s light weight is key to the success of the plane that has 17000 solar panels built into its wings. Solar energy is estimated to become the dominant energy source of the future, as predicted by the International Energy Agency. (IEA)
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Huge Solar Plane Could Fly For Five Years

You think waiting for your flight to land seems like forever? This new solar plane is designed to stay aloft for 43,000+ hours. That's 5 years in calendar talk. I think I’ll need more peanuts. From Cleantechnica A solar-powered high-altitude drone made by Titan Aerospace is intended to be able to remain in flight for about five years. When manufactured, it would have 3,000 solar panels producing about 7 kW of electricity and would be above the clouds, so it would be exposed to sunlight constantly during daylight hours. One is scheduled for completion next year. The point of having such a plane would be to keep a payload in flight long-term, presumably in a manner similar to communications satellites. They could be used for surveillance applications such as environmental monitoring, fire monitoring and disaster response, among other things. Using a long-term solar drone/plane also has the advantage of being a vessel that can be safely brought back down to g…
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