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6 Degrees Entertainment

'NOVA: The Impossible Flight'
(DVD / G / 2018 / PBS)

Overview: Follow two intrepid pilots as they take on the greatest aviation adventure of our time, overcoming countless challenges as they construct and fly the first solar-powered airplane around the world.

DVD Verdict: In March 2015, Solar Impulse 2 launched the greatest aviation undertaking of our time: to be the first solar-powered airplane to fly around the world.

It was a feat 12 years in the making, and was anything but a sure bet.

As we watch and learn, the prototype, often referred to as Solar Impulse 1, was designed to remain airborne up to 36 hours. It conducted its first test flight in December 2009. In July 2010, it flew an entire diurnal solar cycle, including nearly nine hours of night flying, in a 26-hour flight.

Piccard and Borschberg completed successful solar-powered flights from Switzerland to Spain and then Morocco in 2012, and conducted a multi-stage flight across the US in 2013.

As we now learn, a second aircraft, completed in 2014 and named Solar Impulse 2, carried even more solar cells and more powerful motors, among other improvements.

On 9 March 2015, Piccard and Borschberg began to circumnavigate the globe with Solar Impulse 2, departing from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The aircraft was scheduled to return to Abu Dhabi in August 2015 after a multi-stage journey around the world.

By June 2015, the plane had traversed Asia, and in July 2015, it completed the longest leg of its journey, from Japan to Hawaii. However, during that leg, the aircraft's batteries sustained thermal damage that took months to repair.

Solar Impulse 2 resumed the circumnavigation in April 2016, when it flew to California. It continued across the US until it reached New York City in June 2016. Later that month, the aircraft crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Spain.

It stopped in Egypt before returning to Abu Dhabi on 26 July 2016, more than 16 months after it had left, completing the approximately 42,000-kilometre (26,000-mile) first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power.

Here on 'NOVA: The Impossible Flight,' we follow along as these intrepid pilots, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, reveal how bent on pushing the boundaries of human flight and proving renewable energy's potential they truly are.

Along with a team of brilliant engineers, the two designed and built Solar Impulse from scratch - though top airplane manufacturers told them would be too big, too light, and impossible to control.

This NOVA documentary follows the team as it overcomes seemingly insurmountable challenges to build and fly the first solar plane around the world. Fascinating, from start to finish and something that gives us hope for a sustainable aircraft future. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

www.PBS.org





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