Solar Impulse Makes First International Flight

It's the first time the solar powered airplane has made an international flight.

For more news visit ☛ http://english.ntdtv.com
Follow us on Twitter ☛ http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision
Follow us on Facebook ☛ http://facebook.com/NTDTelevision

And now to Brussels, Belgium where pilot Andrè Borschberg brings Solar Impulse in for a historic landing. It's the first time the solar powered airplane has made an international flight. Our local correspondent brings us the details.

Last week pilot and project co-founder André Borschberg flew the Solar Impulse -- an airplane powered only by solar energy -- on its first international flight.

Borschberg flew the plane from Switzerland to Belgium, touching down at Brussels International Airport after a 13-hour flight.

On the ground Borschberg is joined by project co-founder Bertrand Piccard. The two are in Brussels to introduce their pioneering vision of perpetual flight to European institutions.

[Bertrand Piccard , President of the Solar Impulse project]:
"Solar Impulse has the goal of having an airplane fly day and night with a pilot on board and without any fuel, without any gasoline, only on solar power."

Mr Piccard earned his wings as an aviation pioneer when he flew nonstop around the globe in a hot air balloon in 1999. For him the natural next step was flying without any fuel.

[Bertrand Piccard , President of the Solar Impulse Project]:
"I think the ultimate demonstration of technology serving the environment is to fly without any fuel...I believe in the power of pioneering spirit. Pioneering spirit is how to get out of the comfort zone, how to get out of the certainties, how to get out of the dogmas, the paradigms, the common assumptions in order to accept the question marks, the doubts, the unknown."

And Solar Impulse is charting new territory. On July 8th, 2010 Solar Impulse set a world record by flying for over 26 hours straight without fuel."

[Andrè Borschberg, CEO and Cofounder Solar Impulse Project]:
"It's an airplane that is very big, very light, it feels all the movements of the atmosphere, so you have to fly with the nature, you have to follow this movement, like you would see birds above you flying, that is a little bit the same feeling, and not flying against the nature. And I think for me this is also a very important message, symbolic message, because today we have the tendency to be quite separated from the nature, I mean between human being and nature. It is important to feel that you are a part of it and not separated from it."

The airplane will be on display in Brussels until the 29th of May.
After that, Solar Impulse will make a special guest appearance at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget from the 22nd to the 26th of June.

NTD News, Brussels, Belgium.

• Category

  News & Politics

[alex kalicinski]

These guys have the mentalities of alchemists.

[Nomoreidsleft]

Piccard says, "Make it so, Number One."