As Solar Impulse prepares for its return to Abu Dhabi this week, we have compiled a kids guide of ten facts to help you understand more about it. Well I say we, I had my children write it. So a guide for children by children – perfect!
- Solar impulse is a long-range experimental solar powered aircraft project that took off from Abu Dhabi last March.
- Solar Impulse is not the first solar airplane, but it is the first to fly day and night, without any fuel, only using energy stored in its batteries. It is also the first to have achieved an oceanic crossing.
- The wingspan is 72m which is the width of a professional football pitch and the same as a boeing 747 jumbo jet. It
weighs the same as a family car, has the power of a small motorcycle and is the largest aircraft ever built with such a low weight. - Solar Impulse will have flown 35,000 km (22,000 miles) by the time it returns to Abu Dhabi.
- The plane will fly a total of 500 hours at a cruising speed of between 45 km/h (28 mph) and 90 km/h (56 mph) depending on altitude.
- The route has taken Solar Impulse from the UAE to India, Burma, China, Japan, the USA and Europe landing in Egypt for the final leg before returning to Abu Dhabi.
- Importantly the two oceans that Solar Impulse has flown over are the Pacific and Atlantic.
- The pilots are Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg from Switzerland, who have taken turns at the controls of the plane.
- Solar Impulse is important for Abu Dhabi as Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, is the host partner. Solar Impulse has been showcased during the World Future Energy Summit and as part of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, which was hosted by Masdar in January 2015.
- If Solar Impulse succeeds then it proves that planes can be flown on clean technologies which can then reduce our energy consumption in the future!
You can find out a whole lot more information at the Solar Impulse website here.
