JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #54 - January 2010 - 45

USERS’ PLATFORM Application Aer osp ace Solar Plane takes off On 3 December 2009 at 1:11 pm, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA left the ground for the first time from the Dübendorf Airfield (Switzerland). The Solar Impulse is the first airplane designed to fly day and night without fuel. T he results of the ground tests conducted on the prototype to verify numerous parameters (controllability, acceleration, braking paths and engine power) were extremely positive, prompting the team to give test pilot Markus Scherdel the go-ahead to take the prototype up to its take-off speed. As the aircraft gently gathered speed, the huge wings of the Solar Impulse gradually rose into the air under the intense admiration of the project promoters, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. After some 350 metres of flight at an altitude of one meter, the prototype graciously landed in the centre of the runway, triggering a frenzied applause from the team. trained as a fighter pilot, a professional airplane pilot and a helicopter pilot, is the CEO. Piccard’s avant-garde vision and Borschberg’s entrepreneurial experience are an ideal combination. Whilst not the first solar aircraft project, Solar Impulse is certainly the most ambitious: the HB-SIA prototype should be the first aircraft to come close to perpetual flight. Vision The Solar Impulse team believes in the force of symbols. The project’s goal is to write a new page in the history of solarpowered aviation by completing a roundthe-world flight without fuel or pollution to promote renewable energies and the energy efficiency offered by new technologies. The Solar Impulse initiative is scientific by all the research it implies, and philosophical by virtue of its concern to stir society to save the planet’s energy resources. Producing an aircraft entirely propelled by solar energy which is capable of taking off and flying night and day under its own power would not be possible without drastically reducing energy consumption. The 50 engineers and technicians involved in the Solar Impulse project, supported by a hundred or so experts and advisers, had to apply totally new aeronautical solutions. A new kind of airplane With the giant wingspan of an Airbus A340 and its proportionally minuscule weight, the HB-SIA prototype presents construction and aerodynamic features never before encountered. From the carbon fibre structure to the propulsion chain, flight domain and instrumentation, everything has been designed to save energy, to resist high-altitude factors hostile to both materials and pilot, and to meet both weight constraints and strength requirements. Pioneers Two men, both pioneers and innovators, are the driving force behind the Solar Impulse project. Psychiatrist and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard, who made the first nonstop round-the-world balloon flight, is the initiator and chairman of the project. André Borschberg, an engineer and graduate in management science who More information Structure and materials Reaching a 63.40 m wingspan with the required rigidity, lightness and flight controllability, together with a take-off weight of just 1,600 kg, is a challenge that was never met before in aeronautics. The Solar Impulse is built from a carbon fibre/honeycomb composite sandwich structure. The upper wing surface is covered with a skin of encapsulated solar cells, and a high-resistance flexible film is applied on the undersides of the wings. A total of 120 carbon fibre ribs are placed at 50 cm intervals over these two layers, giving the body its aerodynamic shape. The solar panels have not been connected yet. Following this successful initial “flea hop”, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA will be dismantled and transported to the Payerne airfield, Switzerland. From early 2010 onwards, the aircraft will be making its first solar test flights, gradually increasing flight duration until it completes its first night flight powered by solar energy. More information: ww.solarimpulse.com No54 January 2010 / jec composites magazine

http://ww.solarimpulse.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #54 - January 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #54 - January 2010