Grayso has kindly provided the following interesting information and associated YouTube video.
LSMP/Payerne is a small military field in Swizterland that is 2858 × 39.5
m. 744F arrived 20 February to take Solar Impulse to US. Would have been
really impressive if it could have flown there
itself!
Payerne airfield's runway and lack
of parking area for a large freighter aircraft made operating a B747F into the
gateway a challenge. In order to successfully complete the project, the Cargolux
aircraft ran with a limited amount of fuel to minimise the landing and take-off
weight. The B747F parked on the Payerne runway during the loading
process.
The Solar Impulse has a wingspan of
63.4 m and was loaded onto the B747F via its front nose cargo door. The project
was executed quickly - the Cargolux freighter was loaded and turned-around in
just over 5 hours.
The freighter landed in
Luxembourg to take on fuel
before heading on to the NASA
Ames Research Center at Moffett Airfield, San Francisco , USA (Home of the Google corporate jets - Ed).
From Moffett, the Solar Impulse will
begin its 'Across America' mission - a coast-to-coast flight from San Francisco to Washington
DC and New York City
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| Solar Impulse. |
