Critics thought flying a solar-powered aircraft around the world was impossible, but Nova’s PBS documentary premiering January 31 chronicles the successful adventure from beginning to end. The Solar Impulse II began its around-the-world flight on March 9, 2015, following 13 years of work by aerospace engineers, meteorologists and flight controllers who designed, built and flew the airplane. The aircraft carried no fuel, only an array of solar panels used to charge the on-board lithium-ion polymer batteries using the rays of the sun.
Nova: The Impossible Flight
Key Takeaways:
- The Solar Impulse II successfully completed the first-ever solar-powered around-the-world flight, an achievement critics deemed impossible.
- The aircraft, piloted by Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, used 17,000 ultrathin solar cells and high-capacity lithium-ion batteries to fly without fuel, even at night.
- The journey, which took 23 days of flying, included setting a new world solo flight record of five days non-stop between Japan and Hawaii, despite facing challenging conditions and a battery issue that caused a lengthy delay.
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