Solar powered-plane completed US journey

The craft Solar Impulse HB-SIA, of the same wingspan of an Airbus A340 has landed at New York’s JFK airport on its final journey across the US using solar power alone. It set off on Saturday from Washington, DC and landed on Sunday in NY. The plane by comparison to a fully laden A340 which weighs 370 tonnes is far small its size. Nearly 12,000 solar cells covered the plane’s wing and stabilizer which drive its four propellers and charge the plane’s 400kg of lithium-ion batteries for night-time flying. The HB-SIA craft carried out the first inter-continental flight in 2012 and holds the world record for the longest manned solar-powered flight in 26 hours. It is capable in flying day and night has attempted a journey across the US, of which two crews managed an alternating flying duties on the single-seated craft, with each leg of the trip designed to be under 24 hours in length. The prior leg was complicated by high winds and air traffic and re-routed via Cincinnati at the last minute in order to stay under this limit. The Across America project is the last outing of this HB SIA prototype craft with pilots had to organize its flights due to the busiest air traffic in the world flying from Washington to Kennedy airport. It set the record for the greatest distance of a manned solar-powered flight in an effort to encourage policy-makers and businesses to develop and adopt sustainable energy technologies. When it was launched in Washington DC US, Secretary of Energy have echoed its department’s programmes and technology visions that involve many kind of technology advances put together in an integrated system to accomplish something. The integration of solar power in these technologies is believed to contribute to changing the world.