A sun-powered flight around the globe

The  solar-powered plane Solar Impulse 2 flying over the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in  Abu Dhabi. The plane has made three successful test flights in the United Arab Emirates ahead of a planned round-the-world tour today to promote alternative energy.

By Thomas Burmeister/Basel, Switzerland/DPAA near-failure of a previous record attempt gave Swiss aviator Bertrand Piccard the idea for his current plan to circle the world in a solar-powered plane. Piccard nearly dropped from the sky shortly before completing the world’s first non-stop trip around the world in a balloon in 1999. When he landed in the Egyptian desert, the balloon’s propane gas tank was nearly empty. “At that time, I swore that I would make the next circumnavigation of the earth without relying on fuel,” he has said. Sixteen years later, Piccard and Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg are setting out to turn this vision into reality, by attempting to be the first to take the 35,000-kilometre trip in a solar aircraft. Following several successful tests, they are scheduled to start their airplane, the Solar Impulse 2, from Abu Dhabi on the coast of the Arabian Gulf today, if weather conditions do not cause further delays as they have done over the past week. Piccard and Borschberg are going to take turns flying the one-seater in 12 legs, keeping the Solar Impulse 2 in the air for 25 days. Their route will bring them to Oman’s capital Muscat, and on to India, China and the US. The pilots are planning to launch their Atlantic crossing in New York. On the last stretch of their trip, they will fly across southern Europe or northern Africa, before landing the Gulf in late July or early August. The Solar Impulse 2 flies with four propellers that are powered with 17,248 solar cells. Piccard and Borschberg practiced for their global trip in 2013, when they crossed the North American continent in several legs with a prototype. Although the Solar Impulse 2 is more advanced than its predecessor model, it is not capable of flying around the world in one go. This has to do with human limitations and with the plane’s maximum speed of 140 kilometres per hour, according to the Swiss aviation adventurers. “Our aircraft could be in the air non-stop for a month,” Borschberg said about the Solar Impulse 2, whose wingspan of 72 metres is wider than a jumbo jet. However, no pilot could endure the long time it takes for the relatively slow plane to complete its trip around the earth, Borschberg explained. Piccard is convinced that sun-powered aircraft will one day fly at jet-engine speeds and will be able to carry people or cargo. “It took less than 100 years from the Wright brothers to planes with 400, 500 or even 600 people on board,” he said, referring to the US aviators who developed powered flight in the early 20th century. Piccard’s own family history is also full of pioneering feats. His grandfather Auguste Piccard developed a balloon that allowed him to become the first man to reach the stratosphere. Bertrand’s father Jacques Piccard built submarines and was the first to descend to the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in the oceans. Like his forebears, Bertrand Piccard is not only interested in records, but also in technological and scientific advancement. The Solar Impulse 2 project would demonstrate “how clean technology can reduce the use of natural resources and the dependence on fossil energies”, his team said in a statement. To prove this point, Piccard and Borschberg are ready to endure being locked into a cockpit that measures only 3.8 square metres. However, the aircraft has been improved over the prototype. It has a built-in toilet, a business class seat for resting as well as an autopilot, allowing the pilots to fly long stretches across oceans.