Payerne, Switzerland. 2010.7.8 - At 06:51 on the morning of 7 July, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA took off from the Payerne airbase. The flight, powered only by solar energy, was airborne for 24 hours!
 

 
Ten hours later, the prototype reached an altitude of 8,700 meters (28,500 feet). With the help of 12,000 solar panels built into its enormous 63.4 meter (200 feet) wingspan, its' 400kg of batteries were fully charged during this long ascent. The aircraft then began its journey through the night! It began a slow descent to an altitude of 1,500 meters at 23:00. From then, the energy stored in the batteries kept it aloft.
 
"During the whole of the flight, I just sat there and watched the battery charge level rise and rise! Sitting in a plane producing more energy than it consumes is a fantastic feeling", said pilot André Borschberg, CEO and co-founder of the Solar Impulse project.
 
"This is a highly symbolic moment: flying by night using solely solar power is a stunning manifestation of the potential that clean technologies offer today to reduce the dependency of our society on fossil fuels!" stated Bertrand Piccard, Initiator and President of Solar Impulse.
 
In a world depending on fossil energies, the Solar Impulse project is developing an airplane able to take off and fly autonomously, around the world, day and night, propelled (without fuel or pollution), by solar energy.
 
This ambitious project is being supported by the global brands Solvay, Omega and Deutsche Bank and thousands of supporters who are providing financial and promotional backing. Albert II of Monaco, Al Gore and Paolo Coelho are all supporters of the ground-breaking Solar Impulse project. Each of them is sponsoring a solar cell on the wing of the aircraft. And just like them, for a modest contribution, you too can participate in this unique adventure!
 
A multi-disciplinary team of more than fifty specialists from six countries, based in Dübendorf and Lausanne, and assisted by a hundred advisers, constructed the first prototype. The disciplines which were successfully synthesied included: leading-edge construction techniques, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, project & systems management, computer simulation, composite materials, renewable energy, (photovoltaic cells to high-performance engine batteries), flight dynamics, mechanical engineering, air traffic control, PR and finance.
 
Construction of the first prototype, the HB-SIA, began in June 2007. After the success of this first night flight, another aircraft will be developed to attempt to fly several 24-hour cycles consecutively, leading to the first trans-Atlantic flight from 2012, and then the round-the-world flight.
 
As first Main Partner, Solvay is supporting the project financially and with innovative and technological solutions, expertise, forecasting and simulatiion of materials behavior in extreme environments. Over 6 000 parts in the Solar Impulse contain Solvay materials from Solvay Advanced Polymers, Solvay Solexis and Solvay Fluor, especially Ultra high performance polymers.
 
Solvay is an international industrial Group active in chemistry. It offers a broad range of products and solutions that contribute to improving quality of life. The Group is headquartered in Brussels and employs more than 19.000 people in 50 countries. In 2009, its consolidated sales amounted to EUR 8.5 billion. In 2010 the company was acquired by global pharmaceutical brand Abbott.
 
In Australia, Digital Tsunami has delivered online and offline marketing collaterals for Abbott and Solvay. First was the localised website for Solvay Pharmaceuticals, then an online ordering system for Influvac, and interactive CD-ROMs for Creon.
 
Digital Tsunami was founded in Hong Kong in 1996 and Essential, (its' film production division, founded in 1980), has delivered solutions to multinational corporations and global brands including; Citizen, Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Merck and NEC.
 
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