Solar Impulse 2 successfully completed its first flight Bashny.Net

Yesterday, the creators of the aircraft on solar cells Solar Impulse 2 reported the successful completion of the first flight. To develop "a descendant» Solar Impulse has been spent a lot of time and resources, and, as far as can be judged, not in vain.

2 Solar Impulse has a wingspan of 72 meters, and weighs the plane 2, 3 tons. The plane size of such conventional materials would weigh more, but in this case, a carbon fiber, so that the developers were able to significantly reduce the weight of the aircraft.

top plane is almost completely covered with solar cells, which are in the construction, there are about 17 thousand. In addition, the system uses and lithium-ion batteries to store energy for night flying.

It is worth noting that maximum speed of Solar Impulse 2 - 140 kilometers per hour, and the maximum height for this aircraft - 12 thousand meters.

For comparison, maximum speed of Solar Impulse was only 70 kilometers per hour, the maximum altitude - 8700 meters. The wingspan of the first version of "solar plane" was 63 meters, its weight - 1, 6 ton. The number of solar cells reached 12 thousand.



Via solarimpulse

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/225001/