A new solar-powered airplane has begun its journey across the United States, according to the Washington Post.
The aircraft, named "Solar Impulse", is the first solar-powered plane to be able to fly in the both the daytime and at night.
According to LiveScience.com, the plane took off at Moffett Airfield—located just outside of San Francisco—a little after 9 am EDT. If all goes according to plan it will continue its trip for 19 hours until it arrives at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona on May 4 at 4 am EDT.
It is then scheduled to make four more stops in Dallas, St. Louis, Washington D.C. and New York, according to the Washington Post.
While the technology for Solar Impulse in innovative, it is nowhere near the technology for the latest airplanes or jets.
The aircraft’s engine is 10 horsepower and only seats the pilot. These specs are similar to the first planes made by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s.
According to the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg, an engineer and former fighter pilot, the Solar Impulse's pilot straps on a parachute and sits in a space no bigger than a “bad economy seat.”
Since the plane does not heat or pressurize the cockpit, the pilot has no choice but to fight through vigorous heat and cold. The pilot must also wear an oxygen mask. Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, the plane’s other pilot and co-founder practice techniques to whether the elements. Borschberg uses advanced breathing techniques and meditation while Piccard practices self hypnosis.
What happens when they have to go the bathroom? The pilots use old water bottles and avoid fibrous foods in the days leading up to the journey so diapers are not a necessity.
Despite all the discomforts, there is a bigger goal in mind.
“The point of this is to underscore how far we’ve come and how far we need to go to develop alternative sources of power, particularly solar energy,” said Chairman of the Aeronautics Department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Bob van der Linden. “This will help push the technology along.”
There is speculation about what this new creation will be able to accomplish. For example, planes like Solar Impulse can become unmanned and be incorporated into mapping assignments.
Commercial use is not in the near future. However, the pilots believe the plane has potential.
“I think people have a tendency to forget [the limited capabilities of] the airplane of the Wright brothers. How was the airplane of Charles Lindbergh? How was the first one of Chuck Yeager? All these airplanes, they were very limited,” said Piccard. “They were just the maximum of what could be done in those days. So the people who criticize Solar Impulse are like those who looked at the Wright Brothers and said, ‘This has no future.’
