The pilot breaks the altitude record for the plane with solar energy, crossing routes with commercial plane, says his equipment

The Swiss pilot Raphael Domjan exceeded the altitude record for an electric plane with solar energy on a flight that led him to fly to 9,521 meters, or 31,237 feet, his team announced on Wednesday.

The Solarstrades plane made the historical flight from the Zion airport in southwest of Switzerland on Tuesday, taking advantage of the thermal warm air to go beyond the record that has remained for 15 years.

The certified altitude record for a solar plane is 9,235 meters, or 30,298 feet.

Achievement is “one of those unforgettable peaks that define great human and technological adventures,” said the mission solarstrates in a statement.

At the cruise altitude, they actually crossed with a commercial plane, said solerrotrates, calling at the moment “a powerful symbol of what it would be the fucking aviation of tomorrow.”

Domjan’s flight lasted five hours and nine minutes.

“I share this moment of joy with all the people who have been preparing for this achievement for years,” said the 53 -year -old man.

The data will be sent to the governing body of the World Air Sports Federation, which will decide whether the new registration will validate.

“It is the corrected pressure altitude to the standard density altitude that is recognized as the official reference for aviation altitude records,” said the solarstrates team.

Domjan, whose biography of the company describes it as an “ecological” and professor who pilots planes, planners and helicopters, aims to be the first to take a plane with solar energy above 10,000 meters, flying to the same altitude as the airplanes. If that barrier breaks, the team hopes to continue and make a first flight with solar energy manned to the stratosphere, which in the freedom of Switzerland begins about 12,000 meters.

“This achievement marks an important milestone on the road to the arrival of the stratosphere using only solar energy, and already meets the objective of the mission: to capture the imagination with emblematic and spectacular challenges that promote solar energy and the protection of our biosphere and planet,” said sorsters.

The plane of a single propeller mounted on the front, the HB-SXA record, is made of carbon fiber to guarantee lightness and resistance. Rostratrates is 9.6 meters long, and its enormous size of 24.8 meters accommodates the 22 square meters of high specification solar panels that exceed wings, and allows you to fly at low speeds.

The plane, which soarstartos calls “daring and finely designed”, can take off at low speeds, from 50 kilometers per hour up. Its maximum speed is 140 km / h, while its cruise speed is around 80 km / h.

“Tomorrow can be better than we have today”

In 2012, the pioneer Domjan became the first person to navigate around the world on a totally solar ship, a trip that began in Miami in 2010.

“It is important to demonstrate what we can achieve with solar energy,” the News adventurer told.

“The flight dream is probably the oldest dream of humanity,” he said.

“My goal is to show the young generation of today and tomorrow that tomorrow it will still be possible to fly without burning any fossil energy,” he said.

“This is what we want to achieve: it is really to show that the world of tomorrow may be better than what we have today,” he added.

A heating flight on July 31 reached 6,589 meters, exceeding the best best of the plane in 2024.

A first attempt on Friday was quickly abandoned when the forecast thermal did not materialize, saving the batteries for Sunday when the plane reached 8,224 meters.

During the first phase of record attempts, the plane must make the maximum use of hot air currents increasing to climb around 4,000-5,000 meters. Then you have to recharge your batteries to this altitude before climbing again.

Before taking off, batteries must be completely charged using solar energy, and the plane must land under its own energy, it cannot return to zero load, and has at least 16% load in batteries.

If the flight must be certified as a record, all the energy used during the flight must have been produced by solar cells. The current registration was established in 2010 by the experimental plane of solar impulse, with the Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg in the controls.

• Solar energy
• Swiss