Sunseeker Duo, a solar powered plane, by Solar Flight has made its first journey and that too while carrying two persons; Eric and Irena Raymond. Solar Flight had already stated last month that the team is working hard to get the Sunseekr Duo up in the sky for its first passenger flight this Summer and now, the company has released news that the husband wife team has made the first successful flight abroad this fully solar powered airplane.
About four years ago at the Green Air Show in Paris, we remember seeing Eric Raymond with a mockup cockpit. He generated the necessary funding by using Kickstarter in 2012 and completed the construction last year with the remaining time used for carrying out tests and tweaking the plane.
According to Solar Flight, the couple took off from the company’s facility located near Milan, Italy and made use of 1,510 solar cells that have been incorporated on tail and wings of the plane. Once airborne, the plane employs direct solar energy to remain in air. Solar Flight claims that the plane is capable of flights of 12 hours or more with two passengers in it.
Irena Raymond stated; ‘Flying the Duo, skimming the white fluffy clouds from above and playing on the sky, I feel like a bird. No limitations, a pure freedom. It’s so quiet. Compared to a normal airplane, it’s like night and day. You need very good headset in other powered airplanes, but in the Duo you can speak normally even when the motor is running full power, no headset needed. It is unbelievable.’
The next phase is to make a 100 mile journey to a neighboring airport in order to test cross country capability of the Sunseeker Duo. Check out the video below for more on this: