Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A new step for the Solar Impulse : landing in St. Louis

Article published on www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news on June, 4th 2013


The Solar Impulse solar-powered plane has landed in an inflatable hanger at an airport in the U.S. State of Missouri, completing the third leg of its mission across America.
This was pilot Betrand Piccard's longest flight in the plane to date at 21 hours.


The landing follows a 21 hour, 21 minute flight from Texas, pilot Bertrand Piccard's longest flight in the single-seat cockpit to date. Tornado damage to the airport in St. Louis necessitated the use of the inflatable hanger, designed by the Solar Impulse team.
“We brought the inflatable hangar to the USA for testing purposes and in fact it allowed the mission to stay on schedule,” said Solar Impulse Co-Founder, CEO and Pilot André Borschberg. “This exercise is now a proof of concept: rather than taking the airplane to a hangar, we have taken the hangar to the airplane.”

Flight to be completed in mid-July 2013

The flight took off from Dallas/Fort Worth at 4:06 AM Central US time on June 3rd, 2013, and landed at 1:28 AM Central US time on June 4th, 2013 at Lambert – St. Louis International Airport.
The mission across America began in San Francisco on May 4th, 2013. The journey has two final legs, a flight to Washington DC which is planned for early- to mid-June 2013, and a flight to New York City which is planned for early July 2013.



Follow us at @C_et_T !