A solar powered plane landed in Arizona. Video

Photo: Facebook Solar Impulse 2

The Solar Impulse 2 solar-powered aircraft, circumnavigating the world, completed the first leg of the journey through the USA and landed in Phoenix, the capital of the US state of Arizona, after the 16-hour flight from California.

The plane, which was controlled by the Swiss pilot Bertrand Picard, flew out of the city of Mountain View early Monday morning.

The aircraft, equipped with thousands of 17 solar panels, will make two more flights over US territory before crossing the Atlantic.

It is expected that the plane without landing will fly across the Atlantic, from New York to Gibraltar.

The goal of the project is to demonstrate the capabilities of environmentally friendly technologies.

The delights of flight: without sleep and in the telephone booth

Bertrand Picard and co-pilot Andre Borschberg embarked on a world tour on Solar Impulse 29 in March 2015 in Abu Dhabi. The plane has already traveled to Oman, India, Burma, China and Japan, from where he flew 8924 km to Hawaii.

This flight, which took five days and five nights, was a record for the range of non-stop flights for single aircraft.

However, during this trip the solar panels were seriously damaged, which required a long repair.

And only after the light day in the northern hemisphere became longer, the pilots were again able to rise into the air.

The aircraft, equipped with photovoltaic cells, receives energy exclusively from the sun.

During the day, solar panels are used to rotate propellers, as well as to accumulate energy for night flight.

Solar Impulse does not serve as a prototype for future aircraft, but rather as a demonstration of the current capabilities of using solar energy.

Picard and Borschberg have been working on the Solar Impulse project for more than 10 years.

Their aircraft has a wingspan greater than that of the Boeing-747, but at the same time weighs only 2,3 tons.

A trip around the world on such an aircraft involves a number of technical difficulties:

• Low speed means that each segment of the journey takes a lot of time, and you have to fly without interruption, day and night.
• Large sizes and small mass affect the stability of the aircraft and complicate management in high winds.
• The pilot is constantly forced to stay awake, allowing himself to sleep only in fragments, for 20 minutes.
• The cockpit is not comfortable, it is no larger than a telephone booth.

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