Pilot Crosses Alps on Solar Power

April 27, 2009 — Ninety-nine years after Geo Chávez flew the first airplane across the Alps, Eric Raymond became the first person to cross Europe’s great mountain system in a solar airplane. Raymond took off from Buttwil, Switzerland with the solar-powered Sunseeker II on April 14 after waiting for weeks for favorable weather. About 5½ hours later, he had crossed over the nearly 15,000-feet (4,500 meter) peak of the Matterhorn and landed in Torino. He and his team now are on a flying tour of Europe. While Raymond called the Alps crossing “the most scenic flight” of his life, it was also intense at times. After cruising above the clouds for several hours, conditions quickly changed and Raymond found himself trapped with thunderheads towering above him on all sides and near whiteout conditions from snow blowing out the sides of the clouds. His first attempt to descend through a small crack in the cloud layer by opening speed brakes and shutting the motor down was thwarted by a violent 5-second updraft. With some work, he was able to find an equally violent downdraft and descend out of the storm. "It was one of the most difficult things that I have ever done, but it was also the most beautiful flight I have ever made,” he wrote. Raymond’s flight across the Alps was just the first flight of his European Tour. The tour has them heading south, down the entire length of Italy until reaching Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. The second leg will take the group east over the Austrian Dolomites, through Hungary and into Slovenia, before returning to Torino, Italy, in June for a presentation at the World Air Games. As of April 25, he and the team were in Crotone in southern Italy, and with dark clouds forecast, the group expected to stay there for a few days. Click here to see where they are now. This isn’t the first history-making flight for Raymond. In 1990 he crossed the United States in Sunseeker I with 21 flights and 121 hours in the air. It remains the longest journey ever completed by a solar-powered aircraft.

Eric Raymond became the first to cross the Alps in a solar airplane earlier this month. Photo credit: Solar-Flight Sunseeker II’s pilot/designer Eric Raymond called the historic flight “the most scenic flight” of his life. Photo credit: Solar-Flight Eric Raymond flies from Salero to Crotone, Italy as he continues his European Tour with the Sunseeker II. Photo credit: Solar-Flight

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