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June 14, 2011
"Perfect approach, majestic and silent," Solar Impulse "touched down gently and slowly rolled gradually slowing until the team members on shore do not catch the ends of its wings - the hand - to prevent it lies on the side "is the description of the landing that can be read on the official blog of this adventure: http://www.solarimpulse.com/blog/
After an initial failed attempt on Saturday, the Swiss aircraft powered by solar energy has landed safely Tuesday at 9:15 p.m. at Paris, following a flight that lasted about 16 hours.
Video. Takeoff from Brussels on Tuesday at 5:10 am
He had indeed departed that morning at 5:10 from the airport of Brussels. The unit will be the guest of honor of the 49th International Exhibition of Aeronautics and Space, which opens June 20 in Paris airport.
"The pilot André Borschberg extract was painfully cramped cockpit, stretching his stiff limbs, before all the microphones to tell outstretched toward him how he was happy to land at Le Bourget airport in terms of a flight serene and beautiful, "says the blog. He still had to weave between the clouds.
Wait for hours in the clouds
Previously, a blog post that explained the experimental apparatus had arrived earlier in the Paris region. To 15 hours, he flew already Auxerre, south of Paris, but could arise for several reasons. On the one hand, day, land heats up and heat rises. And "the hottest areas - the roof of a shed, a highway, a railway station - will generate bubbles of rising air that may destabilize the aircraft." This danger is reduced over the sun, explained Raymond Clerc, Head of Mission on the blog of the adventure.
Image above: LE BOURGET AIRPORT PARIS, June 14, 2011. Solar Impulse landed at 21:15. He will headline the 49th International Exhibition of Aeronautics and Space. Credits. AFP / Eric Piermont.
On the other hand, air traffic is intense up to 21 hours over the airport Charles de Gaulle, near which the Solar Impulse should pass. An area of traffic that also induces strong turbulence, "the drag generated by the wings of aircraft that can occur more than ten minutes after their passage," he added.
This flight will not be approved because the plane, supposed to work only on solar energy, had to recharge his batteries 40% staying with current conventional after the severe defeat on Saturday. This prototype has the wingspan of a Boeing - 64 meters - but the weight of a car, or 1.6 tonne.Ses wings are covered with 12,000 solar cells that power four electric motors of an output of 10 hp each . The ultimate goal of the team based in Duebendorf, Switzerland, is attempting a world tour in five stages, around 2013 or 2014.
Images, Video, Text, Credits. AFP / Eric Piermont / Translation: Orbiter.ch.
Cheers, Orbiter.ch
