So this is not best plane for first timers.
Aircraft wings solar panels.
The wing tip assembly is of aluminum alloy construction.
The pilot also climbed to 29 000 feet during the day and glided down.
The solar impulse has about the same wingspan as a 747 airplane and its wings are covered in nearly 12 000 solar cells.
One reason for this is the vulnerability of the wing tips to damage especially during ground handling and taxiing.
Solar panels composed by solar cells connected in a certain configuration cover a certain surface of wing or other part of the airplane tail fuselage.
That s about 200 square meters of solar cells.
Figure 16 shows a removable wing tip for a large aircraft wing.
These cells bask in the sunlight charging the plane s.
A staggering 17 248 photovoltaic solar cells each one roughly the thickness of a human hair blankets the delicate wings and fuselage.
The sunglider also draws power from solar panels spread out along its wings which span 78 m 255 ft and feature a total of 10 propellors to make for a top speed of 110 km h 68 mph.
During the day depending on the sun irradiance and the inclination of the rays the convert light into electrical energy.
During daylight the solar panels charged the plane s batteries which make up a quarter of the craft s 2 3 tonne weight.
It will attempt to reach the stratosphere.
Solar impulse is a swiss long range experimental solar powered aircraft project and also the name of the project s two operational aircraft.
Objective to make an inexpensive solar rc plane that can fly by using only energy from the sun to run motors note making and flying this plane requires experience in flying and building of rc planes.
The new solar array is a technology commercialization success for nasa.
Solar rc plane under 60.
The privately financed project is led by swiss engineer and businessman andré borschberg and swiss psychiatrist and balloonist bertrand piccard who co piloted breitling orbiter 3 the first balloon to circle the world non stop.