(ANSAmed) - GENEVA, MAY 24 - The adventure of the first
Mediterranean flight to be conducted by the Swiss plane Solar
Impulse, which runs exclusively on solar power, has begun.
The HB-SIA took off this morning just before 8:30 AM from the
military airport of Payerne (Switzerland) and is headed towards
Madrid, the first stop of an intercontinental trip which will
take the aircraft to Morocco under the Swiss pilot Andre'
Borshberg. The takeover had been scheduled for 6:45 but was
delayed due to slight fog. The prototype is due to land in
Madrid-Barajas in the early morning hours of Friday. The stop in
the Spanish capital will allow for a change of pilots, with
Borshberg's fellow countryman Bertrand Piccard taking over for
the second leg of the trip to Rabat. The take-off is expected to
happen a few days later.
For the first time in the world, the ultra-lightweight
carbon-fibre aircraft is to fly over 2,500 km without a single
drop of fuel. The place - with a wingspan of an Airbus a340
(63.4 metres) and weighing the same as a family car (1,600 kg) -
already conducted its first international flight last year to
Paris and Brussels. The flight to Morocco is considered a trial
run before the Solar Impulse's around-the-world flight in 2014,
for which a new plane is being built. (ANSAmed).
