Street round-the-world flight. Around the earth without refueling: top world flight records

30.10.2019

100 Great Aviation and Cosmonautics Records Zigunenko Stanislav Nikolaevich

Flights around the world

The idea of \u200b\u200bsuperdult non-foal flights, as mentioned above, originated in the 30s of the 20th century. Our famous pilot V. P. Chkalov dreamed even "waved around the ball" - that is, flying around globe without landing.

It turns out that these were not just dreams. Pilots M. M. Gromov and G. F. Baidukov, Designers A. N. Tupolev, A. D. Charomsky, A. S. Moskalev and others became parties to one of the most bold projects for that time of projects. Not many are now known that in 1936-1941, with their active participation, the superdant flight of the ANT-25 aircraft in the 56th parallel (Moscow latitude) with a length of 22,500 km was prepared.

The ANT-25 had to establish a 2000-strong diesel engine an-1, developed at the Central Institute of Aviation Engineering. In terms of efficiency, he did not have equal: the specific fuel consumption was twice as lower than that of the then, and the current gasoline carburetor engines - 0,140-0.145 kg / l. from. Hour against 0.24-0.28 kg / l. from. hour. And since the diesel fuel is cheaper than gasoline, the winnings were even more.

But the war prevented this expedition.

However, abroad something in this direction was managed before the war. So, back in 1924, in the period from April 4 to September 28, the first round flight on two aircraft Douglas DWC was performed. True, at first, 4 aircraft started from Seattle (Washington). But two of them were moving along the way due to technical problems.

And only aircraft № 2 "Chicago" and Aircraft No. 4 "New Orleans" were reached before the finish line, which piloted the crews in Lowell Smith and Leslie Arnold, as well as Eric Nelson and John Jr.

For 175 days, the aircraft overcame the distance of 44,340 km. At the same time, the pure flight time was 371 hours and 11 minutes.

Then all the male pilots furnished a woman. British V. Bruce on the Blackburn Plane Blisuber IV from September 25, 1930 to February 20, 1931 made the first round-the-world flight on a light plane. Of course, during the flight, the flyer made many intermediate landings: in Istanbul, Baghdad, Karachi, Rangoon, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seattle, Vancouver, New York, Plymouth, Le Bourget and Croydon, but still brought the journey to end.

By the way, a relatively recently similar flight performed the American pilot Jerry Mok. In March - April 1964, she flew around the globe for 29 days on a light airplane of Sessna 180 "Spirit of Columbus", completing his flight to the landing at the airfield in Columbus (Ohio).

But men came already following Bruce. First, the recorded world flight for 8 days for 15 hours 51 minutes was made on June 23 - July 1, 1931 Pilot Willy Post and his navigator Harold Gatti on the locker Lokhid "Vega" (Winnie Mei).

And only after that, Willy post on the monoplane Lokhid "Vega", called "Winnie Mei", performed on July 15-22, 1933, a male single flight around the world. Takes off from the Floyd Bennett-Field airfield in New York, he flew the distance at 25 099 km in 7 days 18 hours 49 minutes.

Then Elgen Long on a two-world Paper "Navajo" made the first round-the-world flight through the Earth Poles. For the period from November 5 to December 3, 1971, he overcame the total distance of 62,597 kilometers for 215 hours of flight. Moreover, when flying over the Antarctic, the temperature in the cockpit lowered to -40 ° C.

In July 1978, the first world flight on two light aircraft was performed Frank Hale Jr. with the second pilot Walter J. Hemedren and William G. Wisner with the second pilot Bruce Ch. Wisner on Bonanza Beach cars. The US National Aeronautics Association officially registered this achievement and issued a certificate to pilots certifying that the distance of 38,380 kilometers aircraft was overcome for 159.91 hours of pure flight time.

The first round-the-world flight on a single-engine aircraft through the Poles of the Earth was made in 1987 Richard Norton and Kalin Rosetti. Overlooking Piper Ra-46-Zur "Malibu" on January 21 of January from Le Bourget, pilots were completed there and completed flight on June 15, covering the distance of 55,68 kilometers in 185 hours 41 minutes of flight time.

But the first aircraft who made a "clean" non-red round-world flight without refueling fuel turned out to be the "Voyager" firm "Voyager Erkraft Inc." He was a trimaran monooplan with a large relative lengthening of the wing, built of composite materials on the plan of Barta Rutan. Starting on December 14, 1986 with the Edward Air Base, Voyager, who was driven by Barta Barta Wild Rutan and his partner Gina Yger, back and returned after 9 days 3 minutes 44 seconds. In this way, absolute world flight range records were immediately established in a straight line and an annular route, equal to 40 212,139 km.

By the way, in the same 1986 for 33 hours, Concord plane also flew around the globe, departing, and then landed in Lisbon. It is interesting that during the flight he overtook the night all the time and flew only in daylight. Such a long day turned out.

Now, the role of the "long-range" liner claims "Boeing 777-200LR" WORLLINER, which was submitted to the public on February 15, 2005. According to the press release, it is able to deliver 301 passengers at the maximum distance of 17,446 km. That is, actually "Boeing 777-200LR" Worldliner is able to associate any two cities on the planet, eliminating the need for transplants.

Finally, in March 2007, a well-known American businessman and traveler Steve Fosset, as you know, installed a new record. Previously, he flew around the globe alone on a ball of air, and now she did the same on the plane.

At first he made a round-world journey on the yacht. Then in 2002, after a number of unsuccessful attempts hit the Guinness Book of Records, shelled the globe alone in 14 days at the balloon. And finally, decided to accomplish the same journey by plane.

At first he tried to buy and re-equip for this purpose, the Concord Support Passenger Airplane was written off. However, the deal did not take place. Some say, it happened because the sellers requested over the old plane too much price. Others say that, by reflection, Fosset refused to buy himself - such a mahin to pilot alone is difficult; Yes, and painfully voracious this airligant.

And then he went beaten - he turned to the designer of the record aircraft "Voyager" Bartu Rutan, asking whether to redo the "Voyager" for a single flight. After thinking, Bart Rutan from the idea of \u200b\u200bthe alteration refused, referring to the fact that one person could not withstand more than a week flight. And he proposed to create a new, more high-speed aircraft, which would be able to make a similar flight 2-3 times faster.

The assembly of the aircraft began in September 2002. At the same time, the only metal structures on the aircraft (not counting electronics and the engine) were aluminum chassis racks and a motor.

Everything else was made of carbon fiber and other composites. As a result, 83% of the weight had to fuel. (By the way, Voyager had a weight component of the fuel 72%.)

While the flight tests of the aircraft were walking, and Steve Fosset himself was preparing for the flight. First, despite its 60 years, he ran up to 8 miles every morning, supporting the physical form, as well as regularly improved flight skills. Secondly, on his order, nutritionists have developed a special menu for flight, which consisted mainly of a chocolate-protein vitaminized cocktail, a dry mixture of which it was necessary to breed milk in flight. The cabin was raised in the cabin size with a letter of a written table, and the pilot armchair itself was laid out so that most Path pilot could manage flight lying. Of course, the autopilot was not forgotten, which could independently lead the aircraft, requesting its coordinates from the GPS system and adjusting the route in such a way that the passing winds allow to increase the flight speed of 90-180 and more kilometers per hour.

And on March 3, 2005, Steve Fosset gently dispersed the "flying tank" on the 5-kilometer runway of Salina's airfield in California and raised the overloaded car into the air. The most dangerous phase of the flight was overcome.

Then it was easier. Although it also did not cost without trouble. Then the navigation system is enraged, the fuel consumption turned out to be more calculated (1180 kg in general incomprehensible way disappeared somewhere - they may have evaporated through microcracks in the tank) ... so last day The pilot did not sleep at all, worried and worried. They say he even accepted special medicines to maintain his body in tone. But on the last liters of fuel, it still reached the same strip, where she started, finishing his flight after 67 hours and 2 minutes after the start.

In the future, the same phosset intended to try to take a round-the-world flight on the glider, completely without fuel. However, his premature death during preparation for the next expedition in early 2008 put a cross on this project.

However, Fosset was not alone in his desire. There is also an idea to pave the route of the flight strictly by equator or, on the contrary, according to Meridian through both poles. Finally, there is a proposal of our designer and athlete V. Belokonya to arrange round-tile races on aircraft of this type, just as the cruising yachts go around the globe. The benefit that projects are already available.

"Several years ago we were offered to create a car to Rutanovskaya," said EMZ engineer named after Mezishcheva E. G. Comleev. - Our plane must make such flights not a feat, but everyday. "

According to the EMZ project, the aircraft must be a two-bit scheme (it has already been tested when creating high-rise intelligence officers M-17 and M-55) and have the following characteristics: wing span - 31.88 m; Fuselage length -9.5 m; Weight - 5300 kg, and about 4 thousand kg of them will have to fuel.

Will he be better than Rutanovsky? Not easy to answer. Our designers have not yet have sufficient experience in applying the latest materials. And whether such an aircraft will overcome the planned route Moscow - Odessa - Bosphorus - Gibraltar - Panama - Indonesia - Red Sea - Iran - Caspian Sea - Moscow with a total length of 40,500 km in 7 days, will show only time.

But in general, as you can see, mankind has not intended to calm down.

From the book 100 Great Domestic Films Author Musian Igor Anatolyevich

"Flights in a dream and reveal" film studio. A. Dovzhenko, 1983 Scenario V. Merezhko. Directed by R. Balayan. Operator V. Kalyuta. Artist V. Volynsky. Composer V. Stochachev. Cast: O. Yankovsky, L. Gurchenko, E. Kostina, O. Tabakov, N. Mikhalkov, L. Ivanova, L. Zorina, O. Menshikov and

From the book Big Soviet Encyclopedia (C) author BSE.

From the book 100 of the Great Records of Aviation and Cosmonautics Author

Around the light faster sound? In early 2004, the first tests and another acting model of the airship took place at Cape Canaveral. NASA engineers claim that since it was developed "engine a fundamentally new design that will change the view

From the book is a big newest encyclopedia fishing Author Gorytov Alexey Georgievich

Liliental and Maxim flights, and the Ader made one and the same mistake. Instead of first to work out the optimal proportions of the devices on the models, they tried to solve the problem, which is called Nakhpom. And here the German inventor Otto Liliental worked at all

From the book how to travel by the author Shanin Valery

Night flights a mistake will assume that only airplanes fly at night. In the season of open water, diverse fishing tackles also spread their wings over the tremendous waters of the rivers tired from the rapid run. The occupation is more suspensive. At night they catch as

From book 100 great adventures Author Nepomnya Nikolai Nikolaevich

Around the world so we are arranged: We will not have time to reach one goal, as the new goal starts on the horizon - a higher, far and difficult to achieve it. So travelers, sooner or later, the goal appears to drive around the world: to go to the east, and come back with

From the book I will know the world. Aviation and airplane Author Zigunhenko Stanislav Nikolaevich

On the car around the world, the first Russian, who came around the world by car, became the president of the Union of Russia of Russia Vladimir Lysenko (www.skr.web-online.ru). He crossed the continents along or across - along the longest routes: North and South America from north to

From the book I will know the world. Great travel Author Markin Vyacheslav Alekseevich

Around the world, Riganin Konstantin Konstantinovich Rengarten went around the world. He started on August 15, 1894. The first part of the route took place on the European part of Russia through Vitebsk, Smolensk, Eagle, Rostov-on-Don, Tiflis.

From book Geographical discoveries Author Holvorovyukhina Svetlana Aleksandrovna

Alone around the world. 52-year-old Francis Chichester bought a yacht at that time when a magnificent expert of single travel on Yacht Jean Merrymen wrote that yachtsman can only be aged 16 to 25 years. One who starts later never

From the book of the author

Walking around the world, we ride Sunday morning on September 27, 1898, Riga Streets were extremely revived - the cries of "Hurray" were heard, universal education reigned. So Riga met its citizen Konstantin Rengarten, who ended the world's walking trip. Under

From the book of the author

Flights continue successful flights in Paris encouraged aeronautics of other countries. The first balloons were also appeared in Germany, England, Spain ... In November 1783, such a flight and in Russia took place in Russia. In the meantime, air travel is becoming more and more

From the book of the author

The first flights our compatriots were not at all the only losers if you could say so. Many have tried their strength as aircraft designers and could not succeed. Among them were celebrities, and people are completely unlucky. But they were all obsessed

From the book of the author

Flights behind clouds jet passenger as already mentioned, first jet aircraft were fighting. At first, only fighters and bombers were built around the world. However, in the mid 50s, A.N. Tupolev offered to redo the Tu-16 bomber in jet

From the book of the author

Fly around the world? The idea of \u200b\u200bsuperdult non-foal flights was born in the 30s. As we said, the crews of M. M., Gromov and other Soviet pilots flew from Moscow on Far East, through North Pole In America ... And our famous pilot V.P. Chkalov dreamed even

From the book of the author

Around the old light 1497 year. In Portugal, the King Manuel I came to the throne, later called happy. Five years ago, Columbus opened the West way to India. The Portuguese hurried to capture trading paths from the east, and the king ordered the Armada to Earth to India. it

From the book of the author

The journey around the world In 1803-1806, the first Russian round-the-world expedition took place, which was led by the navigator, Admiral, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern. During his stay in China, Kruzenshtern became interested

Many dreams of making around the world, but few are aware of how really this dream is realized. We can help in this large air alliances, and not travel agencieshow you might think. Maybe a batch tour of the dozens of countries of the world would immediately be convenient to something, but, firstly, travel agencies have long refused the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating such tours due to weak payback and small demand, and secondly, it was not pleasant Himself planning your army?

From this article you will learn what round-the-tightened air tickets, where and how to buy tickets around the world and how much they cost.

What is "round-the-world air ticket"

Around the world ticket - a ticket that will allow you to fly around the earth on a planned route. From Russia to Asia, from there to North and South America, and then Africa or Europe? Easily! Just only on the seller's website to identify all the route points (departure and arrival airports) and travel dates. After that, the company will offer you a "round-the-world ticket", the price of which will be significantly lower than the cost separately taken.

Of course, there are no restrictions here. Typically, the number of flight miles are limited, the number of flights from one continent to another is limited (to fly all the continent of labor will not be, but to dangle back there, for example, from Asia to America will not succeed), as well as the number of flights. Usually the total number of stops is limited to 15-16, which is quite enough for around the world travel.

There is also a rule that states that the latter of your flight between countries must be carried out no earlier than 10 days after the start of the trip. So those who are going to meet the world in weekly vacationmust reconsider their plans. But all alliances do not mind making changes to the route and dates (of course, within reasonable) right during your trip. Have you come to Cambodia and realized that the planned 5 days would not be enough for you? Not a problem, airlines change your reservation for a subsequent ticket.

And of course, you should not forget that you need you who are going to visit, so it is worth calculating in advance - whether you will have all these visas?

Which companies provide such a service

So, our assistants in the sale of round-the-world travel are three major air alliance. Star Alliance, Sky Team and OneWorld. These three alliances enter almost all the most large airlines The world, which allows you when buying a round-the-world ticket, choose almost two hundred countries of the world and move across all continents.

Star Alliance is the largest and oldest air carrier alliance on the planet. It includes 27 companies, including Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Swiss Air, Thai Airways, United Airlines and others.

Star Alliance invites us to purchase a round-the-world ticket with stops in 193 countries of the world, in the 1321 airport. The number of stops is limited to the 16th (and at least five). With a full list of requirements, you can find on the official website of the Alliance in the Rond-The-World Fare section, the FAQs www.staralliance.com/en/fares/round-the-world-fare.

The next by the number of airlines included in the alliance is SkyTeam. Full participants of the Alliance of Total 20, among them: Aeroflot, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, Czech Airlines., Delta Air Lines, Klm, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines and others.

SkyTeam is ready to throw us up to 1052 airports in 177 countries of the world, which is also impressive. At the same time, we can make from 3 to 15 stops that only 1 stop is less than that of the previous alliance. Find more detailed information It is possible on the official website of the alliance www.skyteam.com/ru/flights-and-destinations/travel-passes/go-global.

And the latter is the scale alliance OneWorldwhich consists of 15 participants. This Airberlin, American Airlines, Finnair, S7, British Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Qatarairways and others. As you can see, let oneworld be lagging behind the previous two alliances in terms of the number of air carriers, but it is not inferior to them at the significance and quality of service of their airlines. You can read about round-the-world tickets in OneWorld. You can read on their official website in the Rond-The-World Fares section www.oneworld.com/flights/round-the-world-fares/oneworld-explorer.

How to buy a round-the-world ticket

Purchase a round-the-world ticket personal route You can in the offices of alliances, by phone, specified on their website, or, which is much easier, on the site itself. For convenience, we give an example of the route on the SkyTeam website, which provides a travel scheduler in Russian. We go to the official website of the alliance www.skyteam.com/ru/. Select on the left side of the Rond The World Planner window.

Click the "Run application" button, and then "make a route".

We get to the application page where all the rules are immediately listed that your route must follow: the direction, transplants, the need to intersee the oceans of the quiet and atlantic and so on. We advise you to carefully read these rules to facilitate yourself not only the choice of countries for travel, but also facilitate the process of booking around the world ticket.

We choose the first planning option in which only us is required to list the cities that we want to visit. The scheduler will automatically make a route, respectively, all the rules of the alliance.

We enter in the line to the left of the city in an arbitrary order or mark them on the map. Click "Create the shortest path." The planner will draw us the way for which we will follow.

It remains for us to choose flights and confirm the purchase. We introduce the dates of flights, age and number of passengers, as well as the class we are going to fly: economy or business. Next, the process is no different from buying an ordinary air ticket. We enter the passengers, we make payment and now we are one step closer to your dream trip! And with a round-the-world ticket in your pocket, the rest of the difficulties seem easily overcome.

How much is around the world ticket

Take for example the route Moscow-Washington San Francisco-Delhi-Tokyo-London-Prague-Moscow. Sky Team Planner shows us the estimated cost of a round-the-world ticket for one person on this route 4343 euros, which is approximately 256,700 rubles. This is a preliminary assessment of the cost of a round-the-world ticket that can change during the selection phase of flights.

We introduce the same route to the scheduler on the Star Alliance www.staralliance.com/en/fares/round-the-world-fare#. Star Alliance also gives us a preliminary value estimate, but in this case it is 183,500 rubles.

As you can see, the difference is more than significant. I played the role and the fact that in the Star Alliance scheduler, I myself defined the route, and in the Sky Team planner only celebrated the city, allowing the program to do everything for me, which led to a not very rationally constructed path.

In any case, when planning traveling and buying a round-the-world ticket, it is better to spend a little time and consider all three options that the airline alliances offer us. Then the route will be the most optimal, and airlines you will choose only those that you like and the price of a round-the-world ticket may be much lower.

January 11, 1935 American flyer Amelia Erhart. Made single flight through Pacific Ocean That before this did not manage to one person in the world. It was a peak of a brave American career, the most impressive achievement, who suffered Erhart into the category of people-legends. And today we will tell you about a dozen of the most iconic and famous air records In the history of aviation.

The history of aviation records is unthinkable without achievements carried out by Rait brothers on December 17, 1903. On this day, they made the four first flight in the world around the World of Flight, each of which was recorded in relation to the previous range and duration. As a result, they stopped in the indicators of 260 meters and 59 seconds.

On May 20-21, 1927, the American pilot Charles Lidberg made a flight, which still remains the most famous in the history of world aviation. On the plane with the poetic name "Spirit of St. Louis" he flew out of New York, and after 33.5 hours landed at Le Bourget Airport near Paris. It was the first single flight through the Atlantic Ocean.

The next aviation record of this scale was delivered only in 1935 Amelia Erhart. Walking American on his aircraft Vega 5B first in the world made a single flight through the Pacific Ocean, starting with the Hawaiian Islands and landed after 18 hours and 16 minutes in the city of Auckland in California. On July 2, 1937, Erhart will perish, trying to fly out on the plane around the globe.

In the Soviet Union, in those days was his own pilot star, very comparable in popularity with the Americans Lindberg and Erhart. We are talking about Valeria Chkalov, which June 18-20, 1937 in the crew of Chkalov-Bajdukov-Belyakov made a transcontinental flight from Moscow to the American city of Portland, Vancouver, flying through the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole.

January 16-18, 1957, three American heavy bombers in-52b committed the world's first round-world non-winning flight. During the flight, they replenished fuels three times from the referee aircraft. In 45 o'clock 19 minutes, these stratospheric fortresses (this is translated into Russian nicknames Stratofortress) overcame through the air distance 39165 kilometers.

Sometimes the fact of establishing a new record itself becomes a record. For example, this happened on March 22, 1989 with a plane, which, during the 3,5-hour flight, installed 110 new world achievements immediately, such as weight Limit cargo, maximum take-off weight, as well as speed records, heights and flight range for aircraft of this type.

Bertrand Picar was born in great family. His grandfather Auguste and Father Jacques became famous for the famous dive in Batiscife on the bottom Mariana VpadinaMany of his relatives are famous air and stratosphere conquerors. Yes, and Bertran himself did not slip. In 1999, he with British Brian Jones made the first round-world flight in history hot-air balloon. For 19 days 21 hours and 47 minutes, they overcame on Breitling orbiter 3 distance 45755 kilometers.

On October 4, 2004, the American pilot Brian Binney on the Plane Spaceshipone made the highest flight in the history of aviation. He raised his own aircraft To the height of just over 112 kilometers above the ground surface, thereby overcoming the boundary between the atmosphere and the space.

The farthest flight on the plane

It was time for new aviation records. Classic aircraft, of course, continue to develop, but much more promising and interesting are aircraft with alternative energy sources. The first such famous aircraft was SOLAR IMPULSE, on which Bertrand Picar and Andre Borscheberg made a flight from May-June 2013 western coast The 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 make a world tour.

Airplane on Solar Impulse 2 solar batteries, which runs around the world, completed the longest and complex stage of the Around the World - Flight to the Hawaiian Islands from Chinese Nanjing.

Hard Stage around the World Travel

Landing in Hawaii is the end of the eighth stage of the round-the-world flight of the Solar Impulse 2. Airplane, he began a world tour on March 9, 2015 in Abu Dhabi. He has already visited Oman, India, Myanmar, China and Japan.

The longest travel segment was more difficult than planned initially. In May, the organizers planned to fly the Pacific Ocean. First, the team waited a long time for departure due to adverse weather conditions. Then, when Barshberg had already flew to Calaeloa, because of the impending weather front, he had to sit in the Japanese naked.

A few weeks later, I still managed to complete this mission and make flight from Japan to Hawaiian Islands. The Swiss pilot Andre Barshberg landed the aircraft on June 3 at 15:55 in time of Greenwich Meridian (18:00 Moscow time) at Kalaeloa Airport (Kalaeloa), located west of Honolulu on Oahu Island.

On the flight dedicated to the flight, the following data is reported on this stage of the Around:

As you can see, after takeoff from the airfield in Nagoya, Japan, the plane stayed in the air five days and five nights in a row, setting three absolute global records during this time. The first record was a record for the duration of the flight, which was at the time of planting 117 hours and 52 minutes, the second and third record were recorded on time and range of flight of the aircraft on solar energy.

Another impressive achievement is to exceed the time of the long continuous flight without refueling the aircraft controlled by one pilot. The previous record was installed in 2006 by Steve Fossett (Steve Fossett), which during his second round-the-world trip made a flight on the Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer aircraft, a duration of 76 hours.

During the record stage, Andre Barshberg had already encountered a record of the circular flight with a variety of technical problems. And it is aggravated by the fact that being above the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Solar Impulse 2 simply nowhere to do emergency landingexcept to be driven to the surface. Being in a close cabin of the aircraft (a volume of only 3.8 cubic meters, approximately as a regular 4-door sedan salon), the pilot can support its body in a tone, performing uncomplicated physical charging and yoga exercises. For all the time the flight Andre Barshberg managed to highlight for sleep, several 20-minute segments of time, while it allowed the absence of turbulence, which constantly "torments" the aircraft in the air.

"I feel extremely exhausted and at the same time shaking this extraordinary flight" - says Andre Barshberg, "" Such a feeling as if I rose to Mount Everest five times in a row without a great break for rest. The team in the control center in Monaco (MCC) was all this time with my eyes and ears, their work allowed me to relax for some time, they constantly maximized energy efficiency and transferred me trajectories and flight strategies, calculated and modeled on the computer "

Next - Phoenix and New York

A few days later, Barshberg's colleague - pilot Bertrand Piccar (Bertrand Piccard) - will sit behind the Solar Impulse steering wheel and will fly to the city of Phoenix, Arizona. This segment will be almost twice as shorter than Barshberg flying - about 4.5 thousand km - the pilot will have to spend four days.

Before the next departure, the SOLAR IMPULSE command will check the technical condition of the aircraft. It will also be necessary to wait for the deposit of meteorologists about favorable weather conditions.

Next after the Phoenix, the destination is New York, then you will need to fly the Atlantic Ocean. The ultimate goal of the circular flight is Abu Dhabi, where it began this journey.

SOLAR IMPULSE developers noted that the aircraft does not claim to be "future world aviation". Rather, it is called an example of using the potential of solar energy. The plane is covered with 17 thousand solar panels, which are powered by all aircraft systems, and also charge lithium-ion batteries that support the operation of the aircraft at night.

Solar Impulse-2 aircraft, feeding from solar batteries, on March 9, 2015, rose into the air in Abu Dhabi and took the course east of the united Arab Emirates In the direction of Oman, to establish a world record of around the world.

The plane flies around the Earth with a complex route with numerous stops over the next five months. Stops will be needed for recreation, repair and popularization of technology.

Piloting a single machine will be alternately two Swiss enthusiast of environmentally friendly technologies - Andre Barshberg, who was sitting behind the helmet in Abu Dhabi, and Bertrand Picar.

Conditions of success

"I am sure that we have a special aircraft and it will take us through the oceans," said Barshberg in an interview with the BBC.

The predecessor of the current car, Solar Impulse-1, put a number of world records, including flight through the North American continent in 2013.

However, the journey around the Earth turned out to be a more ambitious goal, and for this it was necessary to build a plane of even larger sizes. SOLAR IMPULSE-2 wings are 72 meters - more than Boeing-747. At the same time, it weighs only 2.3 tons. Small mass is one of the conditions for the success of the expedition.

The monocryla of the aircraft is covered with 17.2 thousand solar panels, which produce energy to supply electromotors of the aircraft. Maximum speed Airplane - 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 in the dark - the second condition for the successful completion of the flight.

This is especially important for flights through quiet and Atlantic Oceansthat will continue for several days without landing.

The french company-designer Dassault Systemes was produced. Solar Impulse 2 was introduced to the public in April 2014. In June, he passed the next trials. The first long flight of the aircraft on solar energy took place on April 7, 2010. Then Solar Impulse managed to spend about 75 minutes in the air.

Without sleep

On Tuesday morning, the crew will go towards India and China, after that travelers fly over the Pacific Ocean, USA and European countries. As expected, in five months an aircraft will overcome 35 thousand kilometers.

Pilots almost all this time will have to do without sleep - they will only be able to revive minutes for 20 minutes, as the single yachtsmen do.

The task is complicated by the need to stay all this time in the cockpit size of only 3.8 cubic meter, which is not much more telephone booth.

Borshberg says that it will allow him to withstand these yoga loads. Picar hopes for self-hypanosis. "But my passion will also support me," he adds.

"I got a dream about 16 years ago, the dream of flying around the light without fuel on one solar energy. And now we are about it. I look forward to when I find in the cockpit, "said Picar.

Aviator supports a well-trained team of engineers. The Flight Management Center is located in Monaco, but the group of engineers will follow the aircraft everywhere. They have a mobile hangar for the time of parking.

Success SOLAR IMPULSE-2 is by no means guaranteed. Computer models show that the flights through the ocean are possible, but only with favorable weather conditions.

This means that it is possible that the team will have to wait for good weather on Earth.

If the plane cannot fly through the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic, the pilot catapults and will swim in the ocean using equipment for survival until the passing ship is picking it.

Andre Barshberg - by education Engineer and a military pilot, but he made his state on Internet technologies.

Bertrand Picar is known for its exploration fields. In 1999, he made the first non-winning flight around the earth in a balloon.

He is the son of Jacques Picar, the first dropped in 1960 on the bottom of the Mariana Wpadin - deep point World Ocean.

And his grandfather Auguste Picar in 1931 was the first to rise in a balloon in the stratosphere.