Payerne: The Solar Impulse
aircraft, a pioneering Swiss bid to fly around the world on
solar energy, took off on its first test flight from an air
base in western Switzerland Wednesday.
Tensions were running high in the team as an AFP reporter
watched the high tech prototype lift into blue skies at a
speed of just 45 kilometres per hour after a one kilometre run
down the runway at Payerne air base shortly before 0830GMT.
Propelled by four 10 horsepower electric motors, the
gangling single-seater aircraft and test pilot Markus Scherdel
slowly gained altitude for a scheduled flight of around two
hours at an altitude of around 1,000 metres (3,280 feet).
The prototype, which is slightly smaller than the plane
that will undertake the round-the-world flight, has a wingspan
comparable to that of an Airbus A340 airliner but weighs as
little as a family-sized car at only 1,600 kilogrammes (3,527
pounds).
Andre Borschberg, co-founder of the project, along with
pioneering round-the-world balloonist Bertrand Piccard, said
the first flight was primarily aimed at testing the complex
aircraft`s behaviour in the air.
"It`s a very important moment after seven years of work,"
he told journalists shortly before take off, adding that the
team was "prepared, but facing the unknown."
PTI
