Adventurer and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard is poised to take to the skies in a sun-powered plane that’s wider than a 747 but only as heavy as a family car
You flew non-stop around the world in a balloon in 1999. Did that experience inform this solar-powered flight?
The balloon flight lasted 20 days, and I worried the whole time that if we didn't have good winds – if we didn't move fast enough – we would run out of fuel. When we finally landed, we had burned 3.7 tonnes of liquid propane and only had 40 kilograms left. I promised myself that the next time I flew around the world, it would be with no fuel at all. That's how the idea for the solar flight was born.
To create the aircraft, you founded Solar Impulse with fellow pilot André Borschberg. Were you confident that you could do it?
All the specialists said it was impossible to build a plane big enough for all the solar panels and batteries we would need, yet light enough to fly. But because André and I weren't specialists, we looked for solutions outside the system. It wasn't the people selling candles who invented the light bulb, you know!
What's special about your single-seater aircraft, Solar Impulse 2?
It has a wider wingspan than a 747 jumbo jet, yet is the same weight as a family car. We have the most efficient electrical motor in the world, the best insulation, a great lighting system, the lightest construction materials. And these things can now be used in cars, homes and workplaces to create a world that uses less energy. Our goal is not just to fly a solar plane around the world. We are creating, demonstrating and promoting technologies that the planet desperately needs in order to be cleaner and more sustainable.
What factors influenced the timing and route of your flight?
It is similar to the path of the balloon flight. We chose the tropical belt so we would have long days with enough sunshine, and the March start date to avoid equatorial thunderstorms.
As you and Borschberg are flying alternate legs solo, how will you rest during flights over oceans, which will take three days or more?
I developed a self-hypnosis technique, where the body is asleep but the mind is alert to changes. This allows me to take 20-minute naps, 10 times a day, with the plane on autopilot. If it leaves a predetermined envelope of flight, an alarm and vibrations in my flight suit will wake me.
You come from a family of adventurers. What's the role of adventure in today's world?
My grandfather opened the way to modern aviation by creating a pressurised cabin. He was the first person to see the curvature of the Earth, on a balloon flight into the stratosphere. My father made the deepest dive in a bathyscaphe, for the US Navy. I grew up believing that life is interesting when you explore it, when you do things that no one has done before. The age of conquest is finished. Today, the unexplored frontiers are how to have a better quality of life on this planet, how we can end poverty, defeat disease and live sustainably.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Sun-powered adventurer"
Profile
Bertrand Piccard is a psychiatrist, entrepreneur and aeronaut. He co-founded Solar Impulse to build long-range solar-powered aircraft. The round-the-world flight will begin in Abu Dhabi on 1 March and make 12 stops along the way
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