Landing in Rabat, Morocco on June 5, two Swiss adventurers completed the world’s first intercontinental solar-powered flight.
Pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg flew the Solar Impulse plane for over 1500 miles first from Payerne, Switzerland to Madrid, Spain then on to Rabat.
The plane’s wings are covered in almost 12,000 solar cells which produce energy that is stored in a battery for night time flights. Solar Impulse flies at around 44 miles per hour.
The Solar Impulse project started in 2003 and has cost about $100 million thus far, and the duo has a round-the-world flight scheduled for 2014.
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA plane. Credit: Gizmodo
The record-breaking flight is not an attempt to offer an alternative to commercial airliners, but rather to prove the viability of solar technology. “Solar Impulse shows that new technology can do what was once thought to be impossible,” Piccard told the Associated Press.
“Solar Impulse symbolizes the pioneering and explorer spirit necessary to find new solutions, outside of old habits and certainties, to respond to today’s challenges,” Piccard continued.
“It shows solar energy is a technology that we can trust,” Borschberg said at the conclusion of the flight.
The plane was welcomed in the country to coincide with the start of construction of the world’s largest solar thermal plant in southern Morocco. The plant will be in the city of Ouarzazate, the next scheduled stop for the Solar Impulse.
