In about half an minute , the Solar Impulsesolar - power planeis going to touch down in Hawaii , at the destruction of arecord - settingflight across the Pacific . Attention and congratulations are quite rightly going to be heaped on pilot André Borschberg , who will have beenpeeing into a funnelfor 120 hours straight . But behind the scenes , Solar Impulse is also the work of a jumbo logistical operation that would put a space mission to ignominy .
Thanks to the very strict freight limits , Solar Impulse can only defend one pilot ( a character that ’s been traded off between Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard between each peg of the journeying ) . The fender is mostly occupy with really take flight the planing machine , which leaves a whole host of other jobs that would normally be take up care of by the conscientious objector - pilot .
The Solar Impulse control condition center : 28 people monitor the aeroplane ’s every move
Meterologists take an ‘ oh diddly-squat ’ moment find out a weather front approach
Instead , that role is satisfy by the Mission Control Center ( MCC ) , a 60 - person - strong getup in Monaco , a tiny European principality hide out in the South of France . The MCC is responsible for for looking after the plane and pilot in flight , so at any one moment during a flight , there ’s a squad of 28 on responsibility . engineer monitor the aircraft ’s systems to verify everything ’s healthy , while a aesculapian team monitor the archetype to make certain he ’s still awake and functioning .
atmospheric condition is also a vast concern for Solar Impulse . Cloud insurance coverage is one of the biggest danger : if the plane ca n’t draw in enough exponent from its solar cells to fly the plane and reload the batteries to fly at night , it ’s game over for the pilot program , so a meteorological squad has to keep an eye on the surrounding weather . Even then , the aeroplane ’s slow top speed intend that a stiff headwind can entirely ruin the mission , something that ’s already induce problems for the team .
in the end , there ’s a squad liaising with Air Traffic Control , and the goal airports . Solar Impulse ca n’t quite land and take off like any other plane — for one affair , it postulate people fend on the runway to enamor it when it lands . That ’s difficult to do in commercial-grade airports , thanks to all those pestering jets take off and landing every mo , so the airdrome often require to be shut down for 20 minutes , to hold the landing place . To make that happen , Solar Impulse has to start function with airports and aviation regime in every unlike state yr in advance .
Once the plane is on the ground , it still want some serious dear . Thanks to the giant wingspan , the planing machine ca n’t be accommodated in a unconstipated repair shed , so the team travels with a elephantine inflatable hangar , which protects the aircraft from humidity , rain , wind , and temperature changes , all of which can mess up with the touchy electronics .
Add together the footing crew , inflatable hangar and spare office , and that ’s a fate of clobber to travel around the world . To carry the entourage from place to shoes , the team has one decidedly non - solar - powered plane : a Russian Ilyushin IL-76 strategical airlifter , a four - engine K originally project to carry machinery and military supplying into distant piece of the USSR .
The Ilyushin takes reward of its immensely superior speed to leapfrog the Solar Impulse plane in flight , commonly waiting until the solar - power plane has go along the point of no tax return to take off and race to the next landing spot .
My other plane ’s an IL-76
have all the behind - the - scene work — and the special K - fuel - eating Soviet airliner — it ’s fairish to interview Solar Impulse’s#futureiscleanmission . After all , even if Solar Impulse completes its around - the - world mission — something that ’s take care progressively probable after a successful Pacific crossroad — it ’s not exactly opening the floodgates for solar - powered commercial flights .
But in Solar Impulse ’s middle , that ’s never been the period . fit in to Solar Impulse ’s make do director , Gregory Blatt , it ’s really just one large publicity stunt :
“ Our aim has been to raise awareness , and the best way to do that is with a man plane . If you take care at our list of partners , only a few are from the airmanship industry . Mostly , we ’ve been working with specialist company that have nothing to do with plane . ”
It ’s loose to dissolve Solar Impulse as a giant PR exercise for the solar instrument panel industry . The missionary station is often fudge as a quest to demonstrate the feasibility of solar - powered flight — and from that perspective , it ’s only succeeding if you could snub the month - long layovers , massive support crew and dubious toilet facilities .
But if you see it instead as a flying testbed for technology that ’s crucial to the future of renewable get-up-and-go , it ’s a very unlike conclusion . Blatt likes to say that for Solar Impulse , there ’s “ no cheating ” — the original and the plane have to land , or the mission has failed . That black - and - lily-white achiever or failure has probably done more to capture the public ’s involvement in solar office than any issue of Union subsidy .
touch the author at[email protect ] .
All images : Solar Impulse
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