The sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse has landed safely in Madrid this morning - and now the plane waits to make another trip, this time across the Mediterranean.
Pilot Andre Borschberg successfully landed in the sunny capital of Madrid at 7.30am BST, following a 24-hour trip from Payerne in western Switzerland.
While this may not be setting any speed records anytime soon, the plane did not need a drop of fuel to get between the two countries.
The next stop, after a three day stopover, is Morocco, at which point the plane will have completed a 1,5550-mile fuel-less journey.
'It was incredible to fly alongside the barrier of clouds during most of the flight and not need to hesitate to fly above them. This confirms our confidence in the capacity of solar energy even further.'
Assuming all goes well on Stage 2 of the journey, the plane will fly a round-the-world flight in 2014.
It currently holds the record for the longest flight by a manned solar-powered aeroplane, staying in the skies for 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds above Switzerland, at a height of over 30,000 feet.
His colleague Bertrand Piccard will take the helm of the aircraft for the second stretch of its journey, to the Moroccan capital Rabat.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
thanks