For the largest solar-powered aircraft flight around the world

Now the advantage of solar technology not only reflected in the portable solar generator for home, its use is very extensive, such as the "Solar-driven" (Solar Impulse) is a Swiss-designed solar-powered aircraft, the prototype made of carbon fiber material with a seat, the wing has an elongated shape with a wingspan 63.4 m. and Airbus A340 aircraft considerably. The wing is covered with solar panels, total 11,628, which can be four total weight of 400kg battery charging. Due to the extensive use of lightweight carbon fiber composite materials, "Solar-driven" was weighing about 1600kg, equivalent to only the weight of a small truck. July 2010, the aircraft has created a manned solar aircraft 26 hours 10 minutes 19 seconds of flight time record, but also set an altitude of 9235 meters altitude record.

Today the "solar-driven" was also unveiled the second generation of the world. following the recent successful test flight, fly around the world are now ready to implement. "Solar-driven" 2 Payerne airbase in western Switzerland are tested for stability and driver training. Driving "the sun-driven"  5 days and nights global journey required two pilots, Borschberg has 25 years of experience in the Air Force is one of them. He said that in order to maintain focus and quick response in a long flight, he is trying to adapt twice a day for 20 minutes of sleep training.

According to plan, "Solar-driven" World Tour No. 2 departed from the Gulf, the Arabian Sea, has entered India, Burma, China, and then across the Pacific to the United States before flying to southern Europe and North Africa, and finally back to the starting point.

Borschberg said the project team early last year came into contact with the relevant Chinese authorities, permission to apply for flight, taking into account China's huge potential for green solar energy storage technology market, he looked forward to China will be "Solar-driven" Global Challenges 2 the indelible mark.

According to project founder, Swiss explorer Picard, the "Solar-driven" 2 covered by the more than 17,000 pieces of its wings thin solar panels convert solar energy into electrical energy, in addition to supply four engines, the excess energy can be stored in high energy density batteries, day and night non-stop flight.

April this year, the official debut of "Solar-driven" on the 2nd, is the world's largest solar-powered aircraft volume. Its wingspan of 72 meters, the size comparable to a Boeing 747-800 aircraft, but the weight is 2.3 tons.

"Solar-driven" when the 2nd actual flight, will first climb to 9,000 meters in height, gliding in slow decline is less dependent on electricity, while ensuring storage needs more power to deal with night flight. In theory, the sun never drive number can fly down, but the driver's physical but not guaranteed. "Solar-driven" 2 can be described as the current green energy-saving technology optimization portfolio to 16 aircraft bright landing lights, for example, only 100 watts of power consumption comparable home bedroom lighting, in addition to the energy loss of aircraft engines only 6%. The project team took core elements of solar panels and fuselage skeleton on display. If not personally seen, it is difficult to imagine the thickness of the plane solar panels equal to only hair thickness, good flexibility and flexibility; airframe made of carbon fiber, its strength level used in aviation, under the same conditions of paper weighs only one-third one.

Turning to prospects for solar-powered aircraft, Picard said that at present a large number of passengers transported on solar power generator isn’t feasible, but if the industry developed a better performance of solar cells and technology, the future of solar-powered aircraft may do more.