The Solar Impulse
One could easily believe one were taking part in a Jules Verne novel: a team wanting to promote renewable energies sets off on a world tour in a solar aeroplane so as to fly without fuel or pollution… The revenge of Icarus, in a way.
“A Jules Verne dream is today an expression to express the explorer’s enthusiasm and the generous force, which is bound to animate the human being. Time, patience, tenacity, wrote my great grandfather Jules Verne, for everything great that has ever been made in the world, has been so in the name of exaggerated hopes, he concluded. And this is what Bertrand Piccard symbolises the best in this ambitious project, but one of universal public interest.“
-Jean Verne-
The Solar Impulse is a revolutionary concept that will push back the limits of our knowledge in the field of materials, energy management and the man-machine interface. It is an aircraft with an inordinate wingspan for its weight and of an aerodynamic quality that to this day has not been equalled, capable of tremendous resistance, despite its light weight.
From the solar captors to the propellers, it is all about optimising the different links in the propulsion chain and integrating an environment that is as hostile to the materials as it is to the pilot and of course to respect the weight and resistance constraints. An exercise in high flying.
The construction calls on the most advanced technologies and stimulates scientific research in the field of composite structures, the so-called intelligent light materials, and the means of producing and storing energy. It will be possible to use these results as much in the construction of the aircraft as, subsequently, in numerous other applications useful to society.
The design of the aircraft, pure and futuristic, will itself be the symbol of the spirit of the project in the sky.
website
Link in the picture below !!!
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