Solar Impulse Preparing for Paris Air Show

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

To prepare Solar Impulse and its pilots for the upcoming airshow season, André Borschberg and other members of the flight team completed a series of tests to enable precise flying, particularly around the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget. “We are preparing for these trips beforehand because they are very complex operations, from both a logistical point of view and purely in terms of flying”, Borschberg explained following his three-hour flight on April 18. Solar Impulse will be the “special guest” at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget from June 20 through 26. This last week’s tests were designed, according to acting flight test director Ralph Paul, with “two objectives…: to adopt the Bourget configuration and increase the flight envelope by doing stickraps.” As the project’s blog explains, “The solar airplane made three simulations closely modeled on the choreography to be adopted for the presentation flights in Paris…. Initially, the pilot climbed to an altitude of 1000 feet (a …