But that’s a good thing, because it was on a nice runway with landing lights to help guide it down. On June 22, at 25 minutes after midnight, local time, André Borschberg touched down at Quarzazate, the site of Morocco’s huge new solar generating plant. Its second attempt at reaching this destination, Solar Impulse was flown through mid-day turbulence and shifting winds, but did not turn back as it had on the first attempt the week before. The project’s press release provides an outline of the flight. “The Solar Impulse airplane took-off this morning at 07:05 (UTC+1) from Rabat-Salé. After flying in the direction of Casablanca, the HB-SIA made its way inland towards Marrakesh, avoiding the Atlas Mountains, and flying in the direction of the desert.” After flying 17 hours and 20 minutes, covering 683 kilometers (423 miles) Borschberg brought the airplane in for a perfect landing. The project reports, “‘It was a beautiful flight with some amazing contrasts between …
Solar Impulse Turns Back
June 13 was not a good flying day for Solar Impulse. Hoping to finish this epic journey between continents, Andre Borschberg ran into stiff winds and severe turbulence. Although in the air for 16 hours and 6 minutes while covering 780 kilometers (484 miles), the flight did not make it to its destination of the solar plant at Quarzazate, but returned to Rabat after battling winds and extreme turbulence. Since the airplane cruises at around 30-35 miles per hour, its average ground speed for the flight of 55 kilometers per hour (34.1 mph) seemed normal enough, but didn’t show the wild swings in groundspeed experienced by Borschberg, a strong contrast to the uneventful leg between Madrid and Morocco. At one point, ground speed was around 10 km/h, or 6.2 mph. At another, ground speed exceeded 140 km/h, or 87 mph. Unfortunately the good tailwinds were all blowing away from the destination and at 14:34 Greenwich Time (UTC) after over seven …
On From Rabat – Solar Impulse Explores Morocco
Solar Impulse took off from Rabat-Sale’ Airport this morning 08:07 a. m. local time, heading over Casablanca and Marrakesh on its way south to Quarzazate, where it is expected to land at 00:30 a. m. local time. Considering early ground speeds under 15 kilometers per hour (about 9 miles per hour), headwinds are a major constraint. Turbulence may also cause difficulties, the area having an average daily temperature in the high 90s and low 100s Fahrenheit. Quarzazate is a high desert city whose name in Arabic means “noiselessly,” probably reflecting the vast stillness of the surround desert. Home to Atlas film studios, one of the largest in world, and setting, along with the desert and Atlas Mountains, for films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator, the area is also a prime solar-energy site for MASEN, the Moroccan solar agency and destination for the Solar Impulse. MASEN is on track to complete a solar farm at Quarzazate, along with four …