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Swiss pilots Piccard and Borschberg in China

Solar Impulse 2 lands in China

CHONGQING, March 31, 2015

Attempting the First Round-The-World Solar Flight, the Swiss long-range solar-powered aircraft founded by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg successfully landed at the Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in China on March 31.
 
The Solar Impulse 2 departed from Myanmar for the fifth leg of its epic circumnavigation on March 30 at 3:36 am local time (9:06 pm GMT, [March 29]) with Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard in command. The first ever single-seater solar plane to enter China, Solar Impulse 2 landed in Chongqing 20 hours and 29 minutes later, having covered 1,459 km.

Flying above the mountainous Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan required the pilot to perform a steep climb at the beginning of the journey. And due to continuous flying at high altitude, the pilot had to wear an oxygen mask as Piccard faced temperatures descending to minus 20 degrees celsius. In addition, tackling strong low level winds in Chongqing made this flight one of the most challenging to date
 
Jean-Jacques de Dardel, the Swiss Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, welcomed the Solar Impulse team at the airport alongside Ai Yang, deputy secretary general of Chongqing Municipal Government. During its stay in China, and on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Switzerland, the Solar Impulse team will honour the strong ties between both countries while organising a series of events demonstrating that innovation is the key to sustainable development.  

The Solar Impulse Chinese Host Partners, Chinese Association of Science and Technology (CAST) and Sina will organise visits and conferences for schools and universities to spread the message of a future centred around clean, renewable energy to the young generation. The key event, involving 1,600 students, takes place in Chongqing today at the Bashu Secondary School.
 
“China has become number one in wind power and in solar panel production, and if you look at how much efforts the Chinese government is making to increase the use of renewable energy to optimise the energy mix, there is no surprise that Solar Impulse is so well received in the country,” said pilots Piccard and André Borschberg, co-founders of Solar Impulse.
   
For the next leg of the course, Borschberg will pilot the flight to Nanjing. - TradeArabia News Service




Tags: China | solar | Impulse |

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