After last week’s successful night flight and the weather forecasts looking good, a test flight is scheduled this Sunday July 18, 2010 from Payerne airfield. Markus Scherdel will be back in the pilot’s seat, this time to test a night landing.
Solar Impulses’ Solar Powered Flight will take off at around 04:00 o’clock. The flight should last for more or less one hour depending on the success of the mission and on weather conditions.
Nine days have passed since the phenomenal night flight of André, it was a truly historic moment. “The souvenir of this special minute when the long-lasting efforts of countless people joined to redefine the limits of the possible and to open the doors to a new era”, said Martin Reichlin
Aptly put, Martin continues, “To use the words of a wise former coach of the German national soccer team: After the game is before the game. Or adapted to Solar Impulse: After the flight is before the flight. Regardless of last weeks huge success our test program is not yet completed. We still miss for example the official confirmation that our pilots can not only fly the HB-SIA by night but can also perform a touch down without daylight. A proof in which aviation authorities could be quite interested once we are ready to do international flights. In addition the air brakes of the plane were never fully opened at higher speeds, as Claude Nicollier just told me. A manoeuvre which can stress the airplanes structure considerably.”
So tomorrow test pilot Markus Scherdel will continue the tests. It’s scheduled that he will take off at 4am and hand on a go-around manoeuvre before he will alight just before the onset of dawn.
The adventure continues.
For more info on Solar Impulse, have a look at Solar Powered Flight Lands.
Source: Solar Impulse
Editorial Director
