Around the Earth without refueling: top world air travel records. Solar-powered circumnavigation across the Atlantic Non-stop round-the-world flight

A solo, non-stop flight around the world without refueling is perhaps the last great record that can be set in aviation. To achieve this goal, Burt Rutan, a famous aerospace designer, turned for help to his main support - the guys from Hangar 63

David Noland

Ready to fly. Global Flayer on the airfield site in front of a hangar in the Mojave Desert

John Karkov pilots the aircraft on a test flight

Cables and levers for aircraft control

The aircraft configuration is optimal for long flights with tailwinds

There are no dial gauges in the cockpit - only a computer screen

75 miles north of Los Angeles, behind the San Gabriel Mountains, you can find a veritable sanctuary for exotic aircraft. A sleepy Mojave town, standing at the crossroads of two roads, deserted surrounding wastelands, 360 absolutely cloudless days a year - where you will find the best place to fly around some experimental aircraft? It is there that the Edwards Air Force Base is located, where the glorious test guys glorified in the film “The Right Ones” served.

The airport in the town of Mojave, like the smaller civilian brother of the military airfield in Edwards, is home to a stunning collection of the most fantastic aircraft. Here you can see a remote-controlled Phantom F-4 taxiing to the runway for another test flight, a bright red MiG-21 hidden behind hangars, hundreds of airliners laid up far from the runways, but most importantly, the most risky aviation projects are started here . Let's take a look at Scaled Composites, the legendary brainchild of aerospace designer Burt Rutan. More of the coolest airplanes were born here than anywhere else in the world. The phrase itself (translated as “Large-scale composites”) is reminiscent of an original technique widely used in Rutan’s company (original - until it was replicated throughout the world). When fulfilling orders for large aerospace companies, Rutan preferred, for the sake of economy, to produce the first flying prototypes on a reduced scale, and it was more convenient to make them exclusively from composite materials.

Scaled, as the company is commonly known here, is housed in several corrugated iron workshop hangars. One October morning, when it was raining contrary to usual, through the open gates of Hangar 63 we saw the outline of an exotic, but at the same time graceful, three-fuselage single jet plane with a wingspan like a decent airliner. It was Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, created by a small team of independent freethinking engineers who couldn't—or wouldn't—fit into the bureaucracies of leading aerospace companies. Glowing with milky white paint, the plane was frightening with its almost porcelain fragility.

In less than 3 months, the GlobalFlyer, carrying on board five times its own weight in fuel, will barely move and begin to accelerate along the 5-kilometer runway of the airfield in Salina, Kansas. In a minute and a half, when the plane roars along the ground for more than three kilometers and reaches a speed of 230 km/h, its pilot, Steve Fossett, gently pulls the tiny control stick.

The GlobalFlyer will reluctantly leave the ground and begin its leisurely climb. Adhering to generally accepted aviation corridors and taking advantage of winter tailwinds, Flyer will cross the Atlantic, fly over England, Italy, and the Middle East. Only 19 hours after takeoff, being already above Saudi Arabia, it will reach its cruising altitude of 15 km. Next, maintaining air speeds from 400 to 500 km/h, the pilot will head towards South-East Asia, Japan, will cross northern part Pacific Ocean and will fly over the west coast of the United States. After 64 hours of flight and 37,000 km, the pilot should land in Kansas, and the latest landmark aviation achievement will be recorded

into the record books. The first round-the-world non-stop solo flight will be completed. "It's probably the most important thing left to do in aviation," says Fossett, a successful 60-year-old businessman from Chicago. In his second, non-commercial life, he made a distinguished career setting speed and distance records in gondolas balloons, in the cockpits of gliders and ocean sailing ships.

Lindbergh, Eager, Glenn...

America seems to like it when its idols perform alone. Lindbergh was not the first person to fly non-stop from New York to Paris. He became a national legend thanks to his desperate determination to repeat this flight alone and in a single-engine aircraft.

One cool evening in 1999, gentlemen relaxing at the Flying M Ranch, a huge patch of desert with private runway— we talked about this topic. Baron Hilton, tycoon hotel business and a selfless aviation enthusiast, gathered a dozen guests—pilots like himself—to his Nevada estate for a week of hunting, fishing and, of course, flying. In a conversation between Fossett and Dick Rutan, the question came up about what other records remained in aviation for the future. Rutan noted that a non-stop flight around the world had already been completed.

In 1986, Rutan and co-pilot Gina Eager (not to be confused with Chuck Eager) flew around globe on the Voyager, a high aspect ratio propeller-driven aircraft designed by Rutan's younger brother Bert. For nine days and nights, Rutan and Eager battled turbulence, thunderstorms, fatigue and fuel system, but still successfully reached the finish line. This heroic flight brought the pilots a medal personally from President Reagan, and their plane a place of honor in the Smithsonian Museum, a hundred meters from Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis.

Rutan vividly remembers telling Fossett, “Steve, you're capable of more—you could do this on your own.” Around the whole world. Without a single landing. And without an assistant. This may be the greatest solo flight since Lindbergh. Rutan immediately hinted that he had someone in mind who would design and build a plane to match these ambitious plans - of course, it should be his brother Bert, the future winner of the Ansari X Prize competition to create the first suborbital private spacecraft.

Soon, Fossett and Burt Rutan signed a contract to develop GlobalFlyer (later another prominent entrepreneur in the aviation business, Sir Richard Branson, joined the conspirators). Rutan, the godfather of the whole idea, put forward an ingenious project for a two-tailed aircraft, which in their narrow circle received the nickname Capricorn - “Capricorn”, but since he could not tear himself away from the nascent SpaceShipOne project for long, he handed over the development of all the details to his team of geniuses - the guys from hangar 63.

The leader of this whole gang - a thin, serious, quiet 43-year-old John Karkov - at first glance does not in any way fit the role of boss in such an extravagant enterprise. When it comes to modes of transportation, he is a retrograde, as evidenced by his 1989 Saab 900 and 25-year-old steel-frame bicycle. However, aviation is in his blood, literally at the genetic level. As a boy, he mowed lawns to earn money for school lessons. flight school, later, in his parents’ garage, he began building his own plane named Quickie (“Smart”) - we note that it was also based on Rutan’s design. After receiving an aeronautical engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, he joined Scaled in 1986. “Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to do everything here,” says the boss, “and in this project I had to stick my nose into every crevice.”

In Hangar 63, under Karkov's command were Joe Ruddy (general structure), Chuck Coleman (fuel supply and control system), Bob Morgan (landing mechanisms), Richard Hodgson (workshop manager), Sean Keller (electrician), Clint Nichols (propulsion and flight tests), and with them another twenty people. Having eaten a pound of salt together, they firmly grasped the company catechism: the apparatus should be light and simple, you need to work quickly, you need to accept responsibility without fear and learn from mistakes. The guys from hangar 63 say it this way: “Turn the nuts quickly, but so that they don’t fall off.”

The inspiration of the entire team, their engineering muse, can be called the French aviator of the early twentieth century, Louis Charles Breguet, who formulated one of the fundamental laws of aviation science. Breguet's range formula shows: the distance that an aircraft can fly is determined by three factors - engine efficiency, aerodynamic quality of the airframe and the relative weight of the fuel (that is, the ratio of the weight of the fuel taken on board to the total take-off weight of the aircraft). Claiming a flight range twice as long as previous records (not counting the Voyager flight), our team launched an attack on Breguet's law on all three fronts at once.

The design of any aircraft begins with the engine, and Karkov has already had his eye on the long-loved Garrett F109. This tiny turbofan engine was developed in the mid-80s to training aircraft Air Force T-46A, which - alas! — never went into series. “It seems that this is the most suitable toy for our business,” recalls Karkov, “there simply wasn’t a better one among small jet engines.” Unfortunately, only a few of these units were produced, and not a single one remains. Therefore, we returned to the option that Rutan used in two of his previous projects - this was the Williams FJ44, also a turbofan, mass-produced for small business class aircraft. The FJ44 had almost twice the thrust of the F109, but weighed 40 kilograms more and, worst of all, was inferior in fuel efficiency by as much as 20%. Recalling the first disappointments, Karkov says: “There were days when we doubted whether it was even possible to build our aircraft based on this engine.” So, on the first front the campaign almost failed. All that remained was to try to take revenge on the other two.

Second front

Attacking Breguet's range formula on a second front is a pleasure. What engineer doesn’t enjoy licking the wings, tail and fuselage until the highest aerodynamic quality is sculpted, that is, the L/D coefficient - the ratio of lift to aerodynamic drag. If you look at Rutan’s draft design, it, with a fantastic, almost 40-meter wingspan, promised brilliant aerodynamics. However, in aircraft design, as in architecture, God is in the details. Karkov took charge of the fuselage design and tail design, and entrusted the critical task of sculpting the subtle nuances of the wing to John Ronch, a genius aerodynamicist and virtuoso programmer who works alone in Elkhart, Indiana. Since 1982, Ronch has collaborated with Rutan more than once, in particular, it was he who calculated the wing and propeller profiles for Voyager.

In May 2002, Scales sent a package of draft design documentation for GlobalFlyer to Ronch, and along with the project, Mark Mangelsdorf, who already had experience working with Ronch. This couple barricaded themselves in Ronch's office, furnished with seven computers, which he usually used to calculate his aerodynamic problems. “From the very first attempt, our analysis of the aircraft’s behavior showed that the device, corresponding to the received drawings, was not capable of performing the task assigned to it,” Ronch himself recalls. However, he had already encountered similar problems and, remembering his own experience in designing sports gliders and stratospheric unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, wrote a fantastic program that analyzes the continuously changing parameters of a round-the-world flight, including weight, speed, altitude, thrust, fuel consumption, etc. - only 11 factors. “The result was a giant matrix,” says Ronch. “We cannot calculate the size of an airplane until we know its behavior in the air, but we cannot know its behavior until we know its size.” It turns out something like chasing your own tail. In the end, you just have to try to guess, and then adjust all the remaining parameters.”

Sitting 12 hours a day in front of monitors, Ronch and Mangelsdorf spent three months trying out different sizes and shapes of wings. When the final parameters were drawn, the newly polished GlobalFlyer brilliantly defeated the second term of the Breguet formula. If you believe Ronch's calculations, the aerodynamic quality of this aircraft reached a value of 37, surpassing even the parameters of the Voyager, which, despite its brilliant aerodynamics, had a quality of only 27. According to calculations, if the aircraft is flown absolutely without error, then at the end of the flight the fuel reserve should correspond to an extra 5000 km.

Final chord

The last term in Breguet's range formula is the relative weight of the fuel. It is normal for airliners to take on board a fuel supply equal to 25-45% of the total take-off weight. Voyager went around the world using 72% of its weight as fuel, the highest ever. The power-hungry engine of the new aircraft puts forward even more stringent demands, and this parameter should soar to an unimaginable 83%. The path to this elusive goal lay through mercilessly cutting excess weight wherever possible.

Weight is the enemy of any aircraft designer, but during the construction of the GlobalFlyer, weight restrictions became simply nightmarish. To lift every kilogram of this aircraft into the air and carry it around the world, you need to load it with 5 kg of fuel. Rutan likes to tell his engineers and craftsmen that every part, after it is designed and manufactured, must pass a final weight test. To do this you need to throw it up. If it falls, it means it was too heavy. And in these words there is just a grain of joke. The Flyer had to have a larger wingspan than the Boeing 737, and the weight had to be driven into a completely absurd range - 1600 kg (without fuel). A simple Ford Explorer weighs that much, and as for the Boeing 737, it’s only 4% of its weight.

For the manufacture of the aircraft's supporting structure, a composite based on carbon fiber and epoxy resin was chosen with a specific strength 7 times higher than that of aluminum. For commercial aviation, the use of carbon fiber composites is at the forefront of technological developments, but for Scaled it is a familiar work that they have been doing for 20 years. The main wing spar, weighing 260 kg, is made of 17,575 strands of carbon fiber, each as thick as a matchstick.

Another secret that allows you to radically save weight is strength calculations carried out at the very edge of acceptable safety. Only one thing is required from each part - that it fulfill its purpose. Just once. Ruddy, the team's head of structural engineering, says: "The challenge is to see how much you can scare yourself while still being within acceptable safety limits." When building small private aircraft, it is customary to include a safety margin up to an overload of 5.7 g. When fully loaded at takeoff, the Flyer's safety margin will barely reach 3 g. This means that if there is any serious turbulence, the wings can break. In the first few hours after takeoff, the life of pilot Fossett will hang by a thin thread, whose strength - that is, the strength of the entire structure - is deliberately limited by stringent weight requirements.

Ruddy attacked the aircraft structure like a butcher, cutting off everything that came under the knife. For the ailerons, he used two layers of carbon fiber instead of the conventional four. The usual stiffeners were replaced with tiny foam inserts. The lower surfaces, not exposed to the sun, were left bare - just to save on paint weight. The results were stunning. Each of the meter-long Flyer ailerons weighed in at a meagerly measured 230 g. As Coleman recalls, “even around the workshop they had to be carried with great care—any draft could tear them out of your hands.”

In the Scaled workshops, the first weighing of a new aircraft is a particularly special event. People gather at the scales, and those who are especially adventurous place bets. Typically, an aircraft built in the Scaled workshops exceeds the weight calculated according to the project by about 7%. This is an extremely low figure for the aviation industry. At that time, Karkov was so worried that he kept the preliminary measurements secret from everyone.

The team, crackling winches, rolled the plane onto three strain-gauge platforms. The numbers on the display flashed as if in slot machine. When all four wheels left the floor, the scale blinked and stopped. 1500 kg - 110 kg less than according to the project. “We couldn’t believe our own eyes,” recalls Karkov, grinning smugly, “we looked at each other and repeated: ‘It can’t be! We must have forgotten to screw something in!” But everything was fine. The third part of Breguet's range formula has been defeated

and rolled in the dust.

November 2004

By the end of November 2004, Flyer had already made 21 flights, climbed to an altitude of 15 km and reached a speed of 560 km/h. The maximum take-off weight was 8.5 tons, 86% of the full fuel load. The team grew confident that if the pilot made no mistakes, the Flyer would fly around the world, even retaining some reserve fuel. Rutan stated bluntly: “This is a really good plane.”

Karkov, now acting as a test pilot for his brainchild, confirms that the device behaves very well in the air. “Due to its unusually long wings, it turns somewhat sluggishly, but overall it handles like a normal airplane.” This is good news for Fossett. Although there is no denying his high qualifications and decent flying experience (2800 hours on jet aircraft alone), he has no claim to the laurels of a test pilot. By Thanksgiving, Fossett had already completed 4 flights with a maximum weight of 4.5 tons.

We must not forget that in reality there are two different aircraft - the Flyer is light and the Flyer is heavy. A lightweight Flyer can surprise with its excellent aerobatic qualities, but as it is refueled, when the weight reaches the maximum 10 tons, its rate of climb drops, the aircraft “sags” relative to the wingtips by almost 3 m and becomes even more clumsy. How the Heavy Flyer will behave on its first (and only) flight with a full load, Fossett will find out a few seconds after lifting off the ground. “The danger is great,” he agrees. But the only conclusion is that everything needs to be done properly.”

The main thing is to get off the ground and begin a three-day flight around the world, then the GlobalFlyer, serenely purring, will independently steer its course, obeying the autopilot. Fossett will only have to chill out, reclining in a booth the size of a telephone booth. Internal pressure will be maintained at a level corresponding to a three-kilometer altitude. To calm your nerves, there is a neatly packed parachute nearby. Fossett will be able to admire the surrounding world through two small side windows. (Fossett will only have to stand up a little and look ahead through the tiny overhead canopy of the cockpit twice - during takeoff and landing.) Otherwise, he will have to while away the time, adjusting the engine power level, monitoring the autopilot and talking with ground controllers. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, drink milkshakes and urinate into a urinal tube. Sleep? As Fossett says, “somewhere between just a little and not at all.”

Overcoming long-term stress is a task Fossett can handle. No wonder he spent thousands of hours in cramped balloon gondolas and rocking yacht cockpits. Let's remember his purely sporting achievements - swimming across the English Channel, participating in the Iditarod sled dog race and much more - his manic persistence is felt in all of this. In comparison with these feats, sitting in the cockpit for three days and the last event will seem like just a forced vacation.

If trip around the world Fossett will end in success; neither he nor Rutan will hide from the rays of glory. But the good guys from Hangar 63 will remain among the unsung heroes, although it was they who, with their imagination, ingenuity and hard work, made it so that a dangerous enterprise on a grand scale could look like a carefree stroll in the eyes of the uninitiated.

January 11, 1935 American pilot Amelia Earhart committed a single flight through Pacific Ocean , which no one in the world had ever managed before. This was the peak of the career of the brave American, her most impressive achievement, which transferred Earhart to the category of legends. And today we will tell you about ten of the most iconic and famous air records throughout the history of aviation.

The history of aviation records is unthinkable without the achievements achieved by the Wright brothers on December 17, 1903. On this day, they made the world's first four flights on the Wright Flyer, each of which was a record in terms of range and duration compared to the previous ones. As a result, we settled on 260 meters and 59 seconds.

On May 20-21, 1927, American pilot Charles Lindbergh made a flight that remains the most famous in the history of world aviation. He took off from New York on a plane with the poetic name “Spirit of St. Louis”, and 33.5 hours later landed at Le Bourget Airport near Paris. This was the first solo flight across Atlantic Ocean.

The next aviation record of this magnitude was set only in 1935 by Amelia Earhart. The brave American, in her Vega 5b aircraft, was the first in the world to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean, starting from Hawaii and landing 18 hours and 16 minutes later in Oakland, California. On July 2, 1937, Earhart died while trying to fly an airplane around the globe.

At that time, the Soviet Union had its own star pilot, very comparable in popularity to the Americans Lindbergh and Earhart. We are talking about Valery Chkalov, who on June 18-20, 1937, as part of the Chkalov-Baidukov-Belyakov crew, made a transcontinental flight from Moscow to the American city of Portland, Vancouver, flying through the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole.

On January 16-18, 1957, three American B-52B heavy bombers made the world's first non-stop flight around the world. During the flight, they refueled three times from a refueling aircraft. In 45 hours and 19 minutes, these stratospheric fortresses (as their nickname Stratofortress is translated into Russian) covered a distance of 39,165 kilometers by air.

Sometimes the fact of setting a new record becomes a record in itself. For example, a similar thing happened on March 22, 1989 with an airplane, which during a 3.5-hour flight immediately set 110 new world achievements, such as maximum cargo weight, maximum take-off weight, as well as speed, altitude and flight range records for aircraft of this type. type.

Bertrand Piccard was born in great family. His grandfather Auguste and father Jacques became famous for their famous submersible dive to the bottom Mariana Trench, many of his relatives are famous conquerors of the air and stratosphere. And Bertrand himself did not make a mistake. In 1999, he and Briton Brian Jones made the first ever flight around the world. hot-air balloon. In 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes, they covered a distance of 45,755 kilometers on the Breitling Orbiter 3.

On October 4, 2004, American pilot Brian Binney made the highest flight in aviation history on SpaceShipOne. He raised his aircraft to a height of just over 112 kilometers above the Earth's surface, thereby breaking the boundary between the atmosphere and space.

Longest flight by plane

The time has come for new aviation records. Classic aircraft, of course, continue to develop, but aircraft with alternative energy sources are much more promising and interesting. The first such famous aircraft was the Solar Impulse, on which Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg flew in May-June 2013 from west coast United States of America to the east, from San Francisco to New York. In the future, they plan to cross the Atlantic on Solar Impulse, and then travel around the world.

The Solar Impulse-2 aircraft, powered by solar panels, took off in Abu Dhabi on March 9, 2015 and headed east from the United States. United Arab Emirates towards Oman to set a world record for circumnavigation of the world.

The plane will fly around the Earth difficult route with numerous stops over the next five months. Stops will be required for rest, repairs and popularization of the technology.

The single-seater will be piloted alternately by two Swiss enthusiasts of environmentally friendly technologies - Andre Borschberg, who was at the helm in Abu Dhabi, and Bertrand Picard.

Conditions for success

“I am confident that we have a special airplane and it will take us across the oceans,” Borschberg told the BBC before takeoff.

The predecessor of the current machine, Solar Impulse-1, set a number of world records, including flying across the North American continent in 2013.

However, traveling around the Earth turned out to be a more ambitious goal, and for this it was necessary to build an even larger aircraft. The wingspan of Solar Impulse-2 is 72 meters, which is larger than that of the Boeing 747. Moreover, it weighs only 2.3 tons. Low mass is one of the conditions for the success of the expedition.

The aircraft's monowing is covered with 17.2 thousand solar panels, which produce energy to power the aircraft's electric motors. The maximum speed of the aircraft is 140 kilometers per hour.

The performance and reliability of 17 thousand solar cells on the upper surface of the wings, as well as lithium-ion batteries recharged from solar panels for flight at night, is the second condition for the successful completion of the flight.

This is especially important for flights across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, which will last several days without stopping.

The aircraft was manufactured by the French design company Dassault Systemes. The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft was presented to the public in April 2014. In June he passed the next tests. The first long-duration flight of an aircraft solar energy took place on April 7, 2010. Then Solar Impulse managed to stay in the air for approximately 75 minutes.

Without sleep

On Tuesday morning, the crew will depart towards India and China, after which travelers will fly over the Pacific Ocean, the United States and European countries. The aircraft is expected to cover 35 thousand kilometers in five months.

Pilots will have to go without sleep almost all this time - they will only be able to doze off for 20 minutes, as solo yachtsmen do.

The task is complicated by the need to stay all this time in a cabin measuring only 3.8 cubic meters, which is not much larger than a telephone booth.

Borshberg says that yoga will allow him to withstand these loads. Picard hopes for self-hypnosis. “But my passion will also support me,” he adds.

“16 years ago, I had a dream to fly around the world without fuel using solar energy alone. And now we're about to do it. I’m looking forward to being in the cockpit,” said Picard.

The aviators are supported by a well-trained team of engineers. The flight control center is in Monaco, but a team of engineers will follow the aircraft everywhere. They have a mobile hangar for layovers.

The success of Solar Impulse-2 is by no means guaranteed. Computer models show that ocean flights are possible, but only under favorable weather conditions.

This means the team may have to wait weeks for good weather on the ground.

If the plane is unable to make it across the Pacific or Atlantic, the pilot will eject and float in the ocean using survival gear until picked up by a passing ship.

Andre Borschberg is an engineer and military pilot by training, but he made his fortune on Internet technologies.

Bertrand Piccard is famous for his exploits in the field of aeronautics. In 1999, he made the first non-stop flight around the Earth in a hot air balloon.

He is the son of Jacques Piccard, who was the first to sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the World Ocean, in 1960.

And his grandfather Auguste Piccard was the first to ascend into the stratosphere in a hot air balloon in 1931.

The trip around the world on the Solar Impulse 2 plane is almost completed. Why is the flight so important?

In the summer of 2016, the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft completed its first flight to solar powered across the Atlantic. The unique experiment was that this air machine had been trying to travel around the world for more than a year without spending a drop of fuel. Last year, the flight was interrupted for 9 months due to an unexpected equipment breakdown. In this article we will talk about Solar Impulse 2's round-the-world trip and explain why this experiment is so important.

Founders

The idea of creating the Solar Impulse aircraft belongs to two Swiss Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg. Picard works as a psychiatrist, and Borschberg has his own business, but both of them have decent experience in participating in various adventurous ventures.

Back in 1999, Picard flew around the Earth in a hot air balloon without landing, thereby becoming the first person to successfully complete such a flight. Borschberg was a fighter pilot for two decades. Air Force Switzerland.

Both travelers take turns flying the single-seat Solar Impulse aircraft. Funded interesting project both government agencies and private companies.

First flight

“We approached several companies that are developing aircraft,” says Andre Borschberg. “They looked at the set of specifications and said we were asking for the impossible.” Therefore, we had to build such a device ourselves. More precisely, even two.”

In 2003, the first work began on creating Solar Impulse on solar batteries. In 2009, a prototype of the aircraft was already ready, the first version of which could make a non-stop flight for a certain time (36 hours).

A year later, the unique Solar Impulse 1 aircraft set a world record. The duration of the solar-powered flight was 26 hours (the remaining charge in the batteries after the flight at night was about 40%). The second version of Solar Impulse in 2013 had time non-stop flight increased even more.

Eight world records were set during the first flight of the solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 1. Pilots Borschberg and Picard plan, without stopping at the existing results, to move on and test Solar Impulse 2 (the second version of the experimental aircraft) as quickly as possible.

Flying laboratory

Solar Impulse 2, according to official press releases from the developers, in most cases is called not an airplane, but a flying laboratory. Innovative engineering developments are tested there throughout the flight. Those designs that have been used for decades in traditional aviation are not used here because their weight is not suitable for Solar Impulse 2, it is too large.

According to Borshberg, he and Picard are insured against any technical errors during the operation of the aircraft. Solar Impulse 2 was initially designed electronically using CAD (computer-aided design). Only after this were the parts of the aircraft, many of which have no analogues in existing aviation, made from real materials.

The fuselage frame made of lightweight carbon fiber, produced by a Swiss company without the use of epoxy resins, weighs only 50 kg. Manufacturers of aircraft parts do not have experience in implementing such structures, so making a fuselage from carbon fiber was, one might say, a certain challenge. But the specialists from Decision, who design high-speed yachts, successfully coped with this task.

Bertrand Piccard says that during the production of the fuselage using the CATIA system, every gram of the design was taken into account, and all parts were tested on a computer, allowing to recreate any loads with a minimum margin of safety. The next stage of testing was that these same elements of the aircraft were tested in real conditions.

Borschberg once shared his favorite joke with reporters: any part that did not break during testing is too heavy for Solar Impulse 2.

But one element, which plays a significant role in the entire structure, surprisingly turned out to be very light. It was a tail boom manufactured over a period of five months. During testing, a crack appeared in it, caused by an error in computer design.

Picard and Borschberg had to postpone their flight for a year. This time was used to improve the qualities of the existing aircraft design and fly to the USA on a prototype of the first version of Solar Impulse.

In 2013, the second version of the aircraft was ready with an increased non-stop flight time.

It is interesting that the wingspan of the second version of the aircraft is much larger than that of the Boeing 747 and slightly smaller than that of the huge Airbus A380. The weight of Solar Impulse 2 is 2300 kg and this aircraft is capable of flying at altitudes of up to 12 km, while the standard ceiling is 8,000 meters.

Almost 270 m2 is equal to the area of the solar panels of Solar Impulse 2. These units provide energy to four engines, which accelerate the aircraft’s speed to 140 km per hour. Of course, these figures are maximum, and during normal flight Solar Impulse 2 generally flies a little slower: 90 km per hour during the day and 60 km per hour at night.

Technical characteristics of Solar Impulse 2

Flight altitude: 8500 m
Nominal weight: 2300 kg
Cruising speed: 70 km/h
Wingspan: 72 meters
Batteries: Li-Ions with an energy density of 260 Wh/kg are located in four engine nacelles along with charge control and temperature control systems. The total weight of the batteries is 633 kg.
Power point: four brushless electric motors with an efficiency of 94% and a power of 13.5 kW through a gearbox (1:10) drive two-bladed propellers with a diameter of 4 m with a maximum rotation speed of 525 rpm.
Weight: 400 kg.

Cockpit
The leaky and unheated cockpit with a volume of 3.8 m3 must support the life of one pilot for 5-7 days. To protect against fluctuations in ambient temperature (from -40 to +400°C), passive thermal insulation is used. The cockpit is equipped with a fold-out lounge chair and a toilet. The pilot will consume 2.4 kg of food, 2.5 liters of water and six oxygen cylinders per day.

Computer
The autopilot helps stabilize the flight and monitors the status of all systems. The system reports dangerous rolls exceeding 50 using vibration devices mounted in the sleeves of the pilot’s suit. More than a hundred different aircraft parameters and pilot vital signs are transmitted via satellite communication to the flight control center.

Design
The fuselage frame is made of ultra-light composite materials - ultra-light carbon fiber (based on carbon fiber, three times lighter than ordinary paper, 25 g/m2) and honeycomb fillers and weighs only 50 kg. The wing has a span of 72 m; inside its aerodynamic profile is supported by 140 carbon fiber ribs located at 50-centimeter intervals.

Slow flight

The official presentation of the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft took place in 2014. Although they already had experience testing Solar Impulse 1, Picard and Borschberg decided, before the first flights, to conduct additional tests on a special simulator, which was intended to develop basic skills in controlling a flying laboratory.

However, contrary to initial assumptions, this task turned out to be quite difficult to implement in reality. We had to invite a former NASA pilot with extensive experience in solving this kind of problems for consultation.

During multi-day training tests, the following shortcomings were discovered: Solar Impulse 2 was too slow to respond to roll commands, but at the same time too sensitive to pitch commands. According to Picard, you need to respond quickly to roll, but at the same time stop inputting controls before any reaction occurs. A roll correction of 5°, taking 20 seconds, is the maximum allowable angle set on the Solar Impulse 2 as part of aircraft safety.

Of course, the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft, which has similar technical characteristics, not used for flights in bad weather. In addition, pilots must take all possible measures to avoid exposure to turbulence.

To the maximum high altitude it is planned to carry out a cruising flight and land the plane in the dark (at this time there is little turbulence on the earth's surface).

“Twenty people will monitor Solar Impulse 2 from mission control, including meteorologists who have previously forecast the weather for the time frame of the aircraft's trip around the world,” Borschberg says. “In addition, meteorological specialists will make timely corrections to the route throughout the flight. This will avoid strong winds, turbulence and clouds that can reduce solar energy and lead to icing.”

The Solar Impulse 2 flight in the daytime is planned at a maximum altitude (8500 meters), and at night - up to 3000 meters with a lift-to-drag ratio of 40 (in other words, if the plane descends by 1 meter, it will fly 40 meters horizontally), which ultimately will provide an additional 220 km of flight. Therefore, the energy in the solar panels is enough to reach cruising altitude even in low clouds.

Such aircraft had never been built before. 12,000 solar panels are located on the large wings of Solar Impulse 2. During the daytime, these batteries charge lithium batteries, due to which the aircraft can continue flying at night.

According to authoritative experts in the field of aircraft construction, Borschberg and Picard implemented, one might say, a unique project that has no analogues in the history of aviation. Their extremely productive partnership made it possible to implement everything necessary for the implementation of this project.

Picard (a psychiatrist by training) successfully attracted investors, and businessman Borschberg organized a group that included 80 highly qualified technical specialists, including in the field of aircraft manufacturing.

Solar Impulse 2 trip around the world

It is expected that in 5 months, Solar Impulse 2, powered by solar batteries, will fly around the world. On March 9, 2015, a trip around the world began in Abu Dhabi. After that, Solar Impulse 2 flew to Oman, then to Myanmar, India, China and Japan. Next - across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. The pilots’ plans also include the USA and Spain, and they plan to finish their flight in Abu Dhabi. The brave experimenters wanted to complete the journey back in 2015, but Solar Impulse 2 had breakdowns in its solar panels, which took 9 months to repair. In the spring of 2016, the plane continued its flight.

On this moment The solar-powered Solar Impulse 2 has only one final flight left - from Spain to Abu Dhabi. But its exact date has not yet been determined. The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft is capable of flying for 5 days without landing. The flight from Nagoya to Hawaii lasted a full 117 hours and 52 minutes. During this time, Andre Borschberg covered 8924 km at an average speed of 75.7 km per hour.

Yoga classes, which he practiced right in the cockpit, helped Borshberg during the difficult flight. In addition, periodic short-term sleep restored strength. Both pilots: Picard and Borschberg consider the lack of a shower to be the main inconvenience (the testers used wet wipes). In addition, the toilet on the plane was a small hole in the bottom of the cabin, which was also extremely uncomfortable.

So, early in the morning at the end of July 2016, the Solar Impulse 2 solar-powered aircraft completed its circumnavigation of the world across the Atlantic Ocean. As many as 19 world records were set during this flight. 11,000 kW/h of electricity was generated by Solar Impulse 2 solar panels.

In total, 17 flights were carried out on this aircraft, total length which amounted to 42,000 km. The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft flew over two oceans and three seas. The total cost of the project was 115 million euros.

The main objective of Solar Impulse 2 is to attract the attention of the world community to “clean energy”. After all, a trip around the world on a unique aircraft proved that solar energy can replace fuel and become a possible alternative in aviation.

However, Picard and Borschberg do not believe that Solar Impulse 2 can be the main mode of transport. In their opinion, this plane is a symbol of the fact that it is possible to achieve amazing results with the help of renewable energy.

There have been previous attempts to implement similar projects, but none of them had such a technically sophisticated system. A solar-powered aircraft that can fly both day and night has never flown before. Solar Impulse 2 was the first such aircraft.

The project is interesting for the very reason that the round-the-world trip of the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft proved the artificial necessity of using oil as a source of fuel, which is used all over the world.

Project history

Today, high-tech countries are working on the task of creating an aircraft capable of making multi-day flights using solar energy. Russia cannot remain aloof from these projects. Already in the world there are several unmanned aerial vehicles capable of being in the air from weeks to one month. The problem is that they carry a small payload of 5-10 kilograms and are used as monitoring systems, but are not involved in passenger or cargo transportation.

For example, the current record holder for flight duration of the Zephyr 8 UAV stayed in the air for 25 days, carrying a payload of only 5 kg.

The next stage in the development of aircraft using solar energy is multi-day flights with a person on board. It is believed that 2021 will become the starting point of the first flight. Thus, 60 years after the first manned flight around the Earth, a person will be able to fly around the planet for the first time without burning hydrocarbons, but using the energy of the Sun. An event of no less significance than the flight of Yu.A. Gagarin.

In the history of world aviation, only one flight around the world has been carried out using solar energy. In 2015-2016, Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Boschberg flew the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft over 42 thousand kilometers in 558 hours, making 17 landings.

Since then, teams from Russia, China, the USA, England, Australia and other countries have been working on creating a manned aircraft capable of carrying a payload of 100-150 kilograms and flying around the world without landing or recharging, using only solar energy.

In our country, technology companies ROTEC and TEEMP with the support RENOVA Charitable Foundation For several years they have been working on the project “Albatross – around the world using solar energy.” Data is being collected and a team of the best specialists in the field of aircraft manufacturing, photovoltaics, energy conservation technologies and meteorology is being formed.

The goal of the Albatross project is to create an aircraft with electric power plant and solar modules as an energy source for the world's first non-stop round the world flight.

The initiators of the project were: Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC ROTEC - Mikhail Lifshits And famous traveler, pilot, member of the Russian Geographical Society - Fedor Konyukhov.

In April 2017, at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society Victor Vekselberg presented the project “Albatross – around the world using solar energy.”

The project is being implemented by a Russian developer and manufacturer of supercapacitors and energy storage systems, a resident of Skolkovo - company TEEMP, part of the ROTEC holding.

Studying the experience of their predecessors, the Albatross project team noticed that the aircraft were created without a reliable calculation base. Our predecessors did not have data on how much energy the aircraft would collect per different heights and latitudes, in different time days, at different positions relative to the Sun, etc. To create the optimal version of the aircraft, it is necessary to collect this data and seriously analyze it. This is what led to the decision to create Flying Laboratory(LL).

In the photo: General view of the Stemme S12 aircraft.

IN end of 2017 the tasks and parameters of the LL prototype were approved for testing the technologies necessary to create an aircraft for a round-the-world flight.

Using TEEMP technologies, the STC company (St. Petersburg) has produced several batches of highly efficient flexible heterostructure solar modules that are capable of capturing not only direct, but also reflected sunlight. This solution makes it possible to apply modules to the lower plane of the aircraft, increasing its power supply.

As a result research work Modules have been created that are used in various record projects. For example, flexible solar modules manufactured for LL are installed on the AKROS rowing boat, on which Fedor Konyukhov is currently making a single passage along the route New Zealand- Cape Horn. The length of the route is over 10 thousand kilometers, the estimated travel time is 150 days. Solar modules for Albatross' future round-the-world flight are being tested in the harsh latitudes of the Southern Ocean.

In the period November 2017 – March 2018, together with the companies TEEMP, Carbon Wacker and Acentiss, a power unit based on solar batteries was developed in combination with energy storage devices, followed by installation on board the LL.

In April 2018 In the Moscow region, the acceptance and first flight of the Flying Laboratory, an aircraft with a wingspan of 25 meters, took place. In fact, the world's first manned The flying laboratory in the field of photovoltaics is a unique research complex that allows testing technologies in real climatic conditions: extreme temperatures, pressure levels, wide ranges of the sunlight spectrum.

In the photo: F. Konyukhov at the helm of the Stemme S12 before a training flight.

By this time, the ground infrastructure for storing and maintaining the Flying Laboratory had also been created. Base location: Severka airfield, Kolomna district, Moscow region.

WITH May to September 2018 equipment testing, test flights, data collection and analysis were carried out.

In parallel with this, on the instructions of the Albatross team, three independent “Feasibility Studies” from expert teams were prepared in 2018:

Acentiss/Carbon Wacker (Germany)
Elson Space Engineering (England)
Denis Craddock/Richard Roake (New Zealand) based on the existing Perlan 2 high-altitude glider.

All three teams confirmed the possibility of creating a manned aircraft capable of flying around the world with a payload of 100-150 kilograms on board.

We are implementing the project on the verge of technological possibilities. Our goal is to identify these technological capabilities, capture them, and begin building the aircraft, with the ability to make changes to the design to take into account the ever-increasing efficiency of both solar cells and energy storage systems.

We have already radically changed the storage system by using a hybrid option. To store the collected energy, a hybrid storage device is used - an aviation-grade lithium-ion battery and a manufactured supercapacitor Russian company TEEMP. Supercapacitors have a huge resource and remain fully operational at temperatures below -60°C. In a hybrid drive, they play the role of a “buffer” and protect it from intense loads, overheating and hypothermia.

In the Swiss project Solar Impulse 2, one of the problems was overheating and failure of lithium ion batteries that accumulate solar energy for flight in the absence of light (at night). It took 9 months to produce and replace the batteries.

October 25, 2018 At the Skolkovo Technopark, a presentation of the Albatross project was held to create an aircraft with an electric power plant, capable of making a non-stop flight around the Earth using solar energy. The project was presented by its director Mikhail Lifshits and traveler and pilot Fyodor Konyukhov.

Plans for 2019.

— Continuation of flights of the Flying Laboratory in the Moscow region and Elbrus region for the purpose of collecting data and testing equipment;

— Development of an aircraft concept for a round-the-world flight;

- Choice aviation enterprise for aircraft construction.

The second half of 2019 marks the start of construction of an aircraft for a round-the-world flight. Construction period is 20-24 months.

Around the world flight route.

Fedor Konyukhov plans to repeat the route of his successful round-the-world flight in the MORTON hot air balloon. In 2016, he flew around the world in 268 hours, covering a distance of 35,000 kilometers. Started and landed in Western Australia.

It is assumed that the flight of the Albatross aircraft will take place at altitudes of 10-12 kilometers in the Southern Hemisphere over the territories of Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and South Africa.

80% of the flight will take place over the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

The length of the route is over 37,000 kilometers

The aircraft's cruising speed is 200 kilometers per hour.

The flight will take 180-190 hours. The aircraft cabin will be equipped with the necessary life support systems.

Extract from the sports codeFAI

FAISportingCode. Section 13 – Solar-Powered Aeroplanes

Class CS – Solar-powered Aeroplanes

SOLAR-POWERED AEROPLANE(SpA): An aeroplane (GS 2.2.1.3) which can be sustained in level flight in the atmosphere using solely solar energy impacting on its airframe as its energy source . (Energy can be stored, both before flight and during flight, into on-board energy storage system)

Speed around the world, non-stop

The course, including suitable control points (to be dealt with as WAY POINTS), shall be approved in advance by the NAC’s concerned (Control points shall be chosen from a pre-defined list of possible way -points). It must start and finish at the same aerodrome, crossing all meridians. The length of the course shall not be less than the length of the Tropic of Cancer or Capricorn (Latitude 22.5 degrees, distance 36,787.559 kilometres, based on the WGS84 ellipsoidal world model).

If, for any reason, final landing cannot be made at the aerodrome of departure, the aeroplane may fly to an alternate landing place lying beyond the original one (at a greater distance from which the start was made).

The start time shall be the time of take-off; the finish time shall be the time of landing.

Project Partners:

TEEMP LLC (www.teemp.ru) is a Russian developer and manufacturer of supercapacitors, as well as energy storage systems based on them for the automotive industry, aircraft and shipbuilding, robotics, research facilities and special equipment. TEEMP supercapacitors operate successfully at temperatures down to -60°C, are characterized by low internal resistance and have a huge resource - about 1 million charge-discharge cycles. The company's production is located in Khimki, its capacity is 200 thousand supercapacitor cells per year.
JSC ROTEC (www.zaorotec.ru). The company's areas of activity: the PRANA system for predicting the condition of industrial equipment, design, engineering and general contracting for the construction of energy and infrastructure facilities, development and production of highly efficient energy storage systems based on supercapacitors, manufacturing, modernization and maintenance of main and auxiliary energy equipment.

Project website: www.albatross.solar

For information

Project "Albatross" - Around the world using solar energy

The goal of the Albatross project is a non-stop flight around the world using solar energy. To achieve this, TEEMP is working on creating an aircraft with an electric propulsion system and solar modules as an energy source. At the company's request, a technology for the production of flexible solar modules and a method for applying them to carbon composite materials was developed. Such modules are capable of capturing both direct and diffuse light with an efficiency of over 22%. This makes it possible to use the sun's rays reflected from the clouds, which practically doubles the power output of the aircraft. To store the collected energy, hybrid storage devices will be used, consisting of lithium-ion batteries for aviation use and TEEMP supercapacitors. The company's supercapacitors have a service life of more than 1 million charge-discharge cycles and remain fully operational at temperatures below -60°C. In a hybrid drive, supercapacitors will play the role of a “buffer” and protect it from intense loads, overheating and hypothermia.

To build a “record” aircraft, it is necessary to test these technologies. For this purpose, the TEEMP company created the world's first flying laboratory in the field of photovoltaics. This is a unique research facility that allows its components to be tested under real climatic conditions: various temperatures, pressure and humidity levels, and in wide ranges of the sunlight spectrum. The flight program for 2018 includes flights in the area of the home airfield (Severka, Kolomna, Moscow Region), as well as in the European part of the country. In addition, planned for 2018 long flights V New Urengoy and Petrovlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The information obtained during the tests will allow the TEEMP company to create an aircraft for a non-stop flight around the world using solar energy in 2020. The world-famous traveler Fyodor Konyukhov will pilot the aircraft. He will repeat the route of his round-the-world flight in a hot air balloon, during which he was able to collect valuable information about the strength and direction of air currents at various altitudes. It is assumed that the flight will take place at an altitude of 12-14 km, and the average speed will be 210 km/h. The Albatross aircraft will cover 35 thousand km in 150 hours and will forever write Russia in the history of world electric aviation.

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