This afternoon the solar powered plane, Solar Impulse 2, touched down in Dübendorf near Zurich inside a 747, completing its trip back home to Switzerland where it was born. In 2 hours @solarimpulse will be back in the hangar where it was built in #Switzerland pic.twitter.com/5eWDMSynxe — SOLAR IMPULSE (@solarimpulse) 22 novembre 2016 In July, […]
Swiss solar plane completes 43,000 km round-the-world flight
Early this morning, the solar powered plane, Solar Impulse II, piloted by Bertrand Piccard, landed in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, completing a full circuit of the globe. The aircraft’s 17-leg journey involved 23 days of flying, covering a distance of 43,041 kilometres. Piccard took off from Egypt and arrived in Abu Dhabi […]
Sun powered aircraft Solar Impulse lands in NYC, completing US crossing
Solar Impulse 2, the world’s first solar airplane capable of flying day and night without a drop of fuel, left Lehigh Valley International Airport, Pennsylvania, late yesterday evening and landed at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York, early this morning, after circling the Statue of Liberty. André Borschberg, a former Swiss military […]
Rattled Swiss pilot on final stage of solar flight to Hawaii
Swiss pilot André Borschberg and Solar Impulse 2, the 100% solar powered aircraft are expected to land in Hawaii today after four days of non-stop flying. At 4.00 am he still had 700km to go before reaching Hawaii. On Thursday, Borschberg bet the record achieved in 2006 by Steve Fosset who flew non-stop for 76 […]
Solar impulse passes point of no return
Solar impulse is on its way across the Pacific Ocean. It left Nagoya in Japan bound for Hawaii and has passed the point of no return. If there is a problem with the aircraft from this point the pilot will not be able to land on dry land because there isn’t any. Hawaii is the […]
Swiss aviators beat Richard Branson around the world
“If the round-the-world balloon flight was the final adventure of the 20th Century, Solar Impulse is without doubt the first to encapsulate the challenges of the 21st” – Albert II, Prince of Monaco. When it comes to pioneering spirit, a few Swiss names stand proud on the international stage, including three generations of the Piccard family […]
Solar Impulse breaks a new record
Ahmedabad – March 10, 2015: After an eleven hour pit-stop in Muscat (Oman) Bertrand Piccard took the controls from André Borschberg and continued onwards over the Arabian sea to India. Solar Impulse landed in Ahmedabad (India) in the state of Gujarat at 11:25pm local time (5:55pm GMT) after 13 hours and 20 minutes of flying reaching an altitude […]
Solar Impulse 2: going to sleep at the wheel
A few years back, two pilots, Bertrand Piccard, the famed Swiss balloonist and André Borschberg, a businessman and former Swiss Air Force pilot, presented the world with the first ultra long distance solar aircraft: Solar Impulse 1. Following the record breaking 26-hour non-stop trip of Solar Impulse 1 in 2010, the Swiss pair and […]