Monday, December 22, 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

    Vancouver Still Leads The Country In Traffic Congestion

    Vancouver Still Leads The Country In Traffic Congestion
    Vancouver remains Canada's most congested city, followed by Toronto and Montreal, but the study shows all three are inching toward improvement.

    Vancouver Still Leads The Country In Traffic Congestion

    Federal Budget Expected To Defer Some Liberal Campaign Promises

    Federal Budget Expected To Defer Some Liberal Campaign Promises
    The Trudeau government's maiden budget will make it easier for jobless Canadians to collect employment insurance benefits and will target some additional EI measures at workers in energy-producing provinces hit hard by the plunge in oil prices.

    Federal Budget Expected To Defer Some Liberal Campaign Promises

    Spotlight Set To Fall On Jian Ghomeshi Case As Judgment Looms

    More than a month after the sexual assault trial of Jian Ghomeshi captured the country's attention, the spotlight is set to fall once again on the disgraced broadcaster and his accusers as an Ontario judge delivers his decision this week.

    Spotlight Set To Fall On Jian Ghomeshi Case As Judgment Looms

    Car2Go Won't Wait For Toronto To OK Its Full Car-share Service; Restarts March 31

    Car2Go Won't Wait For Toronto To OK Its Full Car-share Service; Restarts March 31
    The move by Car2go's car-sharing offering would bring its Toronto operation into line with what's already available in other North American cities.

    Car2Go Won't Wait For Toronto To OK Its Full Car-share Service; Restarts March 31

    Senators Pressure Border Agency Officials About Recent Deaths In Custody

    Senators Pressure Border Agency Officials About Recent Deaths In Custody
    Sen. Grant Mitchell expressed concern that refugees can be held by the border agency for many years.

    Senators Pressure Border Agency Officials About Recent Deaths In Custody

    Advocates Plead For More Cash To Help Build Road For Isolated Reserve

    Advocates Plead For More Cash To Help Build Road For Isolated Reserve
    Shoal Lake 40 First Nation was cut off from the mainland a century ago by construction of an aqueduct which supplies water to the city of Winnipeg.

    Advocates Plead For More Cash To Help Build Road For Isolated Reserve