Solar Impulse 2

Solar Impulse project team Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg have unveiled their new solar-powered aircraft in Switzerland this week, with Solar Impulse 2 designed to circumnavigate the globe.

A bigger and improved version of the single-seater prototype Solar Impulse 1, Solar Impulse 2 has a wingspan of 72m, which is wider than wingspan of Boeing 747, but weighs about the same as a large car.

The aeroplane’s wings are equipped with 18,000 solar cells that will convert sunlight into electricity.

The round-the-world mission flights will be carried out over a five-month period beginning from March to the end of July 2015.

A Northern hemisphere, easterly route is expected, with stopovers in India, Myanmar, China, the US and Southern Europe or Northern Africa in order to switch the pilots.

"The round-the-world mission flights will be carried out over a five-month period beginning from March to the end of July 2015."

Solar Impulse 1 has already been flown across the US, and is designed to store sufficient power in its 400kg lithium polymer batteries that are charged by motors during the day to enable flight throughout the night.

Having completed a historic maiden transcontinental flight in July 2012, Solar Impulse 1 made its debut solar international voyage from Paris to Brussels in June 2011. The aircraft also conducted its 6,000km travel from Europe to North Africa using no fuel launching on 24 May 2012.

Solar Impulse has a projected cost of almost £6.5m over a ten-year period since beginning in 2003.

On 6 April, Swiss-based automation technology firm ABB announced its support to Piccard and Borschberg in their project.

Image: Solar Impulse 2 was been officially unveiled in Switzerland on 9 April 2014. Photo: courtesy of Solar Impulse.

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