Solar Impulse 2 successfully completed its first flight

Yesterday, the creators of the aircraft on the solar cell Solar Impulse 2 reported the successful completion of the first flight. The development of the "descendant" of Solar Impulse was spent a lot of time and resources, and, as far as can be judged, not in vain.

Solar Impulse 2 has a wingspan of 72 meters, and this aircraft weighs 2.3 tons. An airplane of this size from conventional materials would have weighed much more, but in this case carbon fiber is used, so the developers managed to significantly reduce the weight of the aircraft itself.
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From above, the aircraft is almost completely covered with photocells, of which there are about 17,000 in construction. In addition, the system uses lithium-ion batteries that store energy for night flights.

It is worth noting that the maximum speed of Solar Impulse 2 is 140 kilometers per hour, and the maximum height for this aircraft is 12 thousand meters.

For comparison, the maximum speed of the Solar Impulse was only 70 kilometers per hour, the maximum flight altitude - 8700 meters. The wingspan of the first version of the "solar aircraft" was 63 meters, its weight - 1.6 tons. The number of solar cells reached 12 thousand.



Via solarimpulse