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| Solar Impulse Image credit: solarimpulse.com |
Rain and water puddles on the runway do little to stop most planes from taking off, however the Solar Impulse is not your regular plane as it waits for weather to clear before hitting the skies as reported in international news sites, June 22, 2011.
As reported, the Paris Air Show featured numerous aircrafts in the aerospace industry such as fighter jets, stunt planes and commercial aircraft as they spectacularly maneuvered high above in the threateningly gray skies overhead except for one plane, Solar Impulse, docked in a tent at the end of the airfield, as the team waits for an all clear weather for them to showcase what the revolutionary plane can do.
It was noted that, Bertrand Piccard, who made history with the world's first round-the-world hot air balloon flight in 1999, and Andre Borschberg were the two aviators who came up with the idea of the solar plane.
Borschberg was quoted in the report saying that, "It flies at a speed of about 70 kmh, but speed is not what matters, it is the energy.”
It was revealed that, Solar Impulse uses no fuel and that all of its power was generated by the more than 11,000 solar cells which coat its massive wings.
As pointed out, another factor that is unique about the Solar Impulse team, unlike most of the people in the Paris Air Show that are here to sell a product, is that what they are selling is the idea of sustainable energy.
"We want to demonstrate that technology allows us to keep the quality of life we have today, to achieve our goals, but do so using less energy," said Borschberg in the report.
"If you can do what we've done with solar energy in a plane, then we can definitely do it on the ground," he added. "Our aim is to motivate people to change."
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