THERE must be a thousand ways to deliver the message of clean technology and renewable energy, but few are as powerful and inspiring as what Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg are doing.

The Swiss pilots and co-founders of Solar Impulse, the world’s first solar-powered plane, are making an unprecedented attempt to fly around the globe without a single drop of fuel.

They are scheduled to take off next Monday in Abu Dhabi. The journey will be spread out over more than four months, including 25 flight days. The aircraft will cover approximately 35,000 kilometers before returning to the capital of the United Arab Emirates sometime in late July.

“With our attempt to complete the first solar-powered, round-the-world flight with Solar Impulse 2, we want to demonstrate that clean technology and renewable energy can achieve the impossible, and a pioneering spirit and innovation is the way to make a better world,” says Piccard, initiator and chairman of Solar Impulse. “That’s why Solar Impulse was not built to carry passengers but to carry messages.”

Under an earlier announced plan, the around-the-world flight will be conducted at speeds of between 50kph and 100kph with stopovers in 12 locations including Muscat, Oman; Ahmedabad and Varanasi, India; Mandalay, Myanmar; and Chongqing and Nanjing, China. The Chongqing stop is likely on March 19, with the stopover in Nanjing a day later.

After crossing the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii, Solar Impulse 2 will fly across the US stopping in Phoenix, New York and somewhere in the Midwest to be determined later depending on weather conditions. After crossing the Atlantic, the final legs include a stopover in Southern Europe or North Africa before returning to Abu Dhabi.

An idea born in Switzerland 12 years ago, Solar Impulse is a history-making endeavor in the worlds of exploration and renewable energy. With eight world records for the original Solar Impulse 1 prototype — the first solar-powered airplane to carry out a nighttime flight — the Solar Impulse 2 team has designed and constructed a new single-seater aircraft made of carbon fiber.

It has a 72-meter wingspan — larger than that of a Boeing 747 — and weighs just 2.3 tons, equivalent to that of a car. The 17,248 solar cells built into the wing supply four electric motors (1.5 CV each) with renewable energy. During the day, the solar cells recharge four lithium batteries weighing 633kg, which allows the aircraft to fly at night and therefore to have virtually unlimited autonomy.

“A demonstration of the potential of clean technologies, Solar Impulse is a powerful symbol of change, meant to encourage people to question their old certitude and habits,” says Andre Borschberg, co-founder and CEO. “It must accomplish what no other plane in the history of aviation has achieved — flying without fuel for five consecutive days and nights with only one pilot in the unpressurized cockpit.”

Two pilots will take turns flying the aircraft, which will remain in the air for as long as five days and nights without landing.

Challenges

“It is about pushing the limits of human beings. What we have learned from our 72-hour simulation test is that we need to get completely out of our comfort zone and change our mind and habits,” says Piccard, who received a degree in psychiatry from the University of Lausanne and is a lecturer and supervisor at the Swiss Medical Society for Hypnosis.

“For instance, we need to switch from the regular 8-hour sleep pattern during the night to little periods of 20 minutes several times a day and we also practice a lot of hypnosis and yoga. We have to live with new moods, new habits and new ways to be open to everything that is unpredictable.”

During the flight, Solar Impulse 2 will stay in the air for 500 hours in total and the most difficult part will be crossing the Pacific Ocean. They anticipate crossing the ocean on two flights, both lasting five days.

The temperature inside the unpressurized cockpit is expected to alter between 40 and minus 40 degrees Celsius depending on the altitude, creating extreme conditions for the pilots.

A privately funded project, Solar Impulse has brought about 80 companies to provide technologies, solutions, ideas and know-how. Oddly enough only one company is from the aviation industry. Nestle, for example, has worked closely with the Solar Impulse team for over four years developing a range of meals and snacks that can withstand extreme variations in temperature and climatic conditions while providing good nutrition for the pilots.

With an aim to inspire people across all nations to unite behind one common goal of making a commitment to a more sustainable future, Solar Impulse 2 will organize public events for governments, schools and universities at the stops along the way.

“We want youth, leaders, organizations and policymakers to understand what Solar Impulse can achieve in the air, everyone can accomplish on the ground in everyday lives,” Piccard says.

“We want to use the airplane, an airborne laboratory, to present to the young generation the positive way to look at the future and show we can improve the quality of our life by using technology in a proper way,” he adds.

The pilots and creators of the aircraft

Bertrand Piccard

Born to a Swiss family of explorers, Bertrand Piccard (right) completed the first-ever non-stop balloon flight in 1999 along with Brian Jones. His grandfather Auguste Piccard, a professor of physics, made possible modern aviation and space exploration by inventing the pressurized cabin and the stratospheric balloon.

Auguste made the first two ascents into the stratosphere during which he studied cosmic rays and became the first man to witness the curvature of the earth with his own eyes. Applying the principle of his stratospheric balloon to the exploration of ocean depths, Auguste invented and built a revolutionary submarine which he called a “bathyscaph.”

Bertrand’s father, Jacques Piccard, an oceanographer and engineer, worked with Auguste to build the Trieste, the second bathyscaph. Jacques broke several records diving with his father before himself becoming the deepest man on earth by reaching a depth of 10,916 meters in the Marianas Trench, together with American Don Walsh in 1960.

André Borschberg

Borschberg flew as a fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force for 25 years prior to his work with Solar Impulse.

An engineer by education and a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management, Borschberg brings the essential skills of an entrepreneur who contributes to convert vision into reality.

His responsibilities include building the strategy to design and produce the aircraft, as well as putting together a team of over 100 people.

Timeline

2003 — Feasibility study at the école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

2004-05 — Development of the concept

2006 — Simulation of long-haul flights

2006-09 — Construction of first prototype (HB-SIA; Solar
Impulse 1)

2009 — First flight of Solar Impulse 1

2009-11 — Manned test flights, including first all-night flight in 2010

2011-12 — Further test flights through Europe and North Africa in seven legs

2011-13 — Construction of second prototype (HB-SIB; Solar Impulse 2)

2013 — Continental flight across the US of Solar Impulse 1 (Mission Across America)

2014 — First flight of Solar
Impulse 2

2015 — Planned world tour of Solar Impulse 2