Thursday, December 18, 2025
ADVT 
National

Good Weather And Some Luck Could Bring A Record-Shattering Solar Impulse 2 Aircraft To Vancouver

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 14 Apr, 2016 01:12 PM
    Vancouver is one of four locations being considered as the North American West Coast destination for a history-making flight.
     
    Scientists and pilots linked to the round-the-world flight of a solar-powered airplane are expected to decide the destination in the next month as they await a favourable weather window.
     
    West Coast destinations, including Phoenix, the San Francisco area and Los Angeles, have been selected to allow maximum flexibility for route planning and weather conditions.
     
    The Solar Impulse 2 is able to fly day and night without fuel and has completed one jump across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Hawaii on its way across North America and Europe to Abu Dhabi.
     
     
    But a news release from the programs co-founders says the 117-hour, 52-minute non-stop 8,900-kilometre flight last July overheated the batteries and the plane has been grounded in Hawaii since then, completing repairs and test flights.
     
    The single-seat, carbon fibre Solar Impulse 2 weighs little more than a small car and has more than 17,000 solar cells built into its nearly 72-metre wingspan, providing renewable energy for four electric engines.
     
    "An airplane with perpetual flight endurance, without fuel, like the Solar Impulse, is not only a first in the history of aviation, but also in the history of energy," Bertrand Piccard, the project's chairman, said in the release.
     
    "The primary purpose of this adventure is to demonstrate that modern clean technologies can achieve the impossible and encourage everyone to use these same energy efficient solutions on the ground in their daily lives for mobility, construction, lighting, heating, cooling and more."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Fire Destroys Community Hall In Northern Ontario First Nation

    Fire Destroys Community Hall In Northern Ontario First Nation
    Robert Nault says he is thankful no one was hurt in the blaze Thursday morning. 

    Fire Destroys Community Hall In Northern Ontario First Nation

    Justin Trudeau Says Money For Transit To Roll Out This Year, With Few Restrictions

    Justin Trudeau Says Money For Transit To Roll Out This Year, With Few Restrictions
    The prime minister didn't specify how much individual communities would receive, but he did say Ontario in particular could expect to receive about half the money — $1.5 billion.

    Justin Trudeau Says Money For Transit To Roll Out This Year, With Few Restrictions

    How To Tackle Surrey's Gun Violence: Mayor Linda Hepner Wants To Change Prosecution Rules

    How To Tackle Surrey's Gun Violence: Mayor Linda Hepner Wants To Change Prosecution Rules
    Hepner proposes to change the rules for criminal prosecution to get more accused culprits before the courts.

    How To Tackle Surrey's Gun Violence: Mayor Linda Hepner Wants To Change Prosecution Rules

    One Dead, One In Hospital As Car Struck By Freight Train In Brampton, Ont.

    One Dead, One In Hospital As Car Struck By Freight Train In Brampton, Ont.
    Friday's crash took place just before 10:30 a.m. at a crossing in Brampton, Ont.

    One Dead, One In Hospital As Car Struck By Freight Train In Brampton, Ont.

    Saskatoon Man Charged In Sex-Assault, Robbery Case Near University Of Victoria

    Saskatoon Man Charged In Sex-Assault, Robbery Case Near University Of Victoria
     A Saskatchewan man is accused of forcing his way into the home of two young women on Vancouver Island and sexually assaulted one of them earlier this year.

    Saskatoon Man Charged In Sex-Assault, Robbery Case Near University Of Victoria

    Helium Balloons Banned At Surrey Vaisakhi Parade

    Helium Balloons Banned At Surrey Vaisakhi Parade
    A statement from organizers asked businesses and attendees to respect the event’s new “no helium balloons” policy.

    Helium Balloons Banned At Surrey Vaisakhi Parade