Solar Impulse Shatters Distance Record

Solar Impulse lands in Dallas.

Solar Impulse?a plane as big as a jet that weighs only as much as a car and flies only by power from the sun?is currently on its way across America. And on the most recent leg of its journey the aircraft broke its own record for solar-powered flight. Pilot Andre Borschberg flew Solar Impulse 958 miles from Phoenix to Dallas, topping the 693-mile trek the team made around Europe last year.

Solar Impulse is no speed demon. It took Borschberg 18 hours to make a trip that a jetliner could make in two, and he spent a good deal of time coast around windy Dallas-Fort Worth Airport awaiting his chance to land. But the Swiss team behind the experimental aircraft is in no hurry. After years of proving the plane's worth around Europe, Borschberg, partner Bertand Piccard, and the rest of the team are taking a multi-stage tour of America to show the potential of flying by photon. The journey began in San Francisco. The route then dipped down to cross the country over the sunny southern states. From Dallas, the plan is to journey to St. Louis, then Washington, D.C., and finally New York.

All of this wandering about is a prelude to the grand vision of the Solar Impulse team: A flight around the world in a scaled-up version of the sun-powered plane, set to commence in 2015.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/solar-impulse-breaks-distance-record-with-phoenix-to-dallas-flight-15510806?src=rss

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