{"id":6099,"date":"2012-06-22T20:47:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T03:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=6099"},"modified":"2012-06-22T20:54:41","modified_gmt":"2012-06-23T03:54:41","slug":"solar-impulse-lands-in-desert-at-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/solar-impulse-lands-in-desert-at-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Impulse Lands in Desert at Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

But that’s a good thing, because it was on a nice runway with landing lights to help guide it down. \u00a0On June 22, at 25 minutes after midnight, local time, Andr\u00e9 Borschberg touched down at Quarzazate, the site of Morocco’s huge new solar generating plant. \u00a0Its second attempt at reaching this destination, Solar Impulse was flown through mid-day turbulence and shifting winds, but did not turn back as it had on the first attempt the week before.<\/p>\n

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Andre' Borschberg celebrates with Moroccan dancers following safe landing in Quarzazate<\/p><\/div>\n

The project’s press release provides an outline of the flight. \u00a0“The Solar Impulse airplane took-off this morning at 07:05 (UTC+1) from Rabat-Sal\u00e9. After flying in the direction of Casablanca, the HB-SIA made its way inland towards Marrakesh, avoiding the Atlas Mountains, and flying in the direction of the desert.” \u00a0After flying 17 hours and 20 minutes, covering 683 kilometers (423 miles) Borschberg brought the airplane in for a perfect landing.<\/p>\n

The project reports, “‘It was a beautiful flight with some amazing contrasts between the coast and interior landscapes, but the highlight was the view of the Atlas Mountains: breathtaking!’\u00a0said Andr\u00e9 Borschberg to the cheering of the Solar Impulse team, the Governor of Ouarzazate, Mayor of Marrakesh and local journalists. ‘It still remains one of the most difficult flights we’ve done and it wasn’t easy to find the adequate altitude to avoid turbulence, to charge the batteries and to avoid being too cold. But Ouarzazate was our final destination and we made it! It is a great satisfaction to finally be here for our project and our host’\u00a0said joyfully Andr\u00e9 Borschberg as he exited the aircraft.”<\/p>\n