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Meet the Pilots Behind the Sun-Powered Plane That Can “Fly Forever”
Teo Kermeliotis
1 Their CVs combined look like the envy of all true air adventurers. Pioneering ultralight aircraft? Been there. Setting world records by circling the globe nonstop in a balloon? Done that. Commanding the first ever 24-hour flight on a plane powered just by the sun? Yep, you’ve guessed it.
2 And now, following 12 years of complex designs and intense training, aviation pioneers Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg are set to conquer new heights, taking up the challenge of the first solar flight around the globe.
3 The Swiss duo unveiled last week Solar Impulse 2, a revolutionary aircraft designed to achieve the longest ever flight in the history of aviation in terms of duration for a single pilot. It will attempt to fly nonstop for 120 hours (yes, that’s five successive days and nights) over oceans and continents without a drop of fuel.
4 Made of carbon fiber, Solar Impulse 2 is the evolution of a prototype that has smashed several aviation records in recent years, including the first fully solar-powered overnight flight lasting 26 hours in 2010.
5 The upgraded plane has a huge wingspan of 72 meters, wider than a standard Boeing 747, and weighs only 2,300 kilos — that’s about as heavy as a family car. Its wings are covered with a skin of 17,000 solar cells that supply four electric motors with renewable energy, while its custom-made lithium batteries are able to store enough solar energy throughout the day to keep the ultralight plane flying at night.
6 “What we have now is the first airplane in the world which has unlimited endurance,” says 62-year-old Borschberg, a father of three, who was the one in the cockpit in 2010’s record-breaking flight. “It can fly a day and a night, it can fly a week, it can fly a month — theoretically it can fly a year,” he adds. “It’s the most energy efficient airplane ever built.”
7 Inside the airplane’s tiny cockpit, measuring about one and a half the interior volume of a 2013 Mini Cooper, every detail has been calculated to achieve maximum energy efficiency while ensuring the pilot can live there for several days. Its structure is surrounded by a high-density foam to protect the pilot from temperatures ranging from -40°C to +40°C in the absence of heating and air conditioning. There is enough space for food, water and oxygen supplies, while a multipurpose seat, which comes packed with a parachute and a life raft, functions as a toilet. It also reclines to allow the captain to perform physical exercises to keep blood circulation going as well as take a nap — but only for up to 20 minutes each time.
8 “You need to know how to rest, how to eat, when to go to the toilet and how to keep the body functioning. Of course, we’ve also prepared for the worst — how to jump out if it’s necessary, how to survive in the ocean with a small life raft and how to get rescued,” says Borschberg.
9 To achieve all that, Piccard and Borschberg have spent countless days and nights inside flight simulators over the last few years. But while technical training is crucial, Piccard says preparing yourself mentally is as important. “You have to be ready in your head to really visualize all the solutions,” says Piccard. “Otherwise it’s very, very difficult.”
10 If there’s someone who knows about difficult, if not impossible, undertakings, then that’s Piccard, a third-generation adventurer. His grandfather was the first man to make it to the stratosphere in a balloon while his father was the first to reach the deepest point of the Earth’s oceans, the Mariana Trench at nearly 11,000 meters.
11 Following in their footsteps, Piccard developed a passion for aviation early on.
12 In March 1999, he completed the first nonstop round-the-world balloon flight with Brian Jones from the UK, while four years later he joined forces with Borschberg, an aviator, entrepreneur and mechanical engineer, to embark on their lofty mission to build a solar aircraft that could circle the world with no polluting emissions.
13 “In my family tradition there has always been the scientific exploration and the protection of the environment — so this is what drives me,” says 56-year-old Piccard, who is also a doctor, psychiatrist, and a father of three. “(To) have an interesting and exciting life but also have a useful life for others,” he adds.
14 Indeed, more than just setting new records, it’s this desire to chart a sustainable path for future generations that seems to motivate the Solar Impulse founders.
15 Following last week’s unveiling, Piccard and Borschberg are now set to begin test flights in mid-May before embarking on their 35,000-kilometer journey in March 2015. Starting from the Gulf region in the Middle East, the two pilots will then fly over India, Myanmar and China, cross the Pacific, the United States and the Atlantic with the aim of returning to their departure point.
