Solar-powered plane makes 87-minute maiden flight

Solar Impulse HB-SIA, an emissions-free aircraft that has been designed to demonstrate the potential of renewable energies by circumnavigating the globe without landing, has made its maiden flight from Payerne airfield, Switzerland.

During the 87-minute flight, Solar Impulse reached a height of 1,200m before performing a series of manoeuvres.

The Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype has a wing span of 63m, which is comparable with a commercial airliner, but at 1,600kg the solar-powered plane weighs the same as a family car.

Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss adventurer who made history in 1999 by flying around the world non-stop in a balloon and the man behind Solar Impulse, plans to test the solar-powered plane by making a crossing of the Atlantic in 2012.

The future of emissions-free flying

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “The Solar Impulse needs a 63m wingspan simply to carry a single person, but technology can move incredibly fast – it was only 66 years after the first powered flight in 1903 that we landed on the moon.”