Swiss pilots attempt first solar-powered flight around the world

[AroundTheWorld]

35,000km journey with no fuel: Swiss pilots attempt first solar-powered flight around the world

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 01 March, 2015, 11:20am
UPDATED : Sunday, 01 March, 2015, 11:20am

Sijia Jiang [email protected]

The Solar Impulse 2 on one of the test flights, cruising over Payerne municipality in Switzerland. Photo: Solar Impulse

Two Swiss pilots on a solar-powered aeroplane will attempt to complete the first ever round-the-world flight with zero fuel – with stops in Chinese cities scheduled for later this month.

The single-seater aircraft called Solar Impulse 2 will be piloted alternately by André Borschberg, co-founder and chief executive of Solar Impulse, the Swiss company that developed the plane, and his partner Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss balloonist and psychiatrist.

Solar Impulse 2 is almost as large as an Airbus A380 but weighs only as much as a car. It has a 72-metre wingspan, wider than that of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, but only a maximum speed of 90 km/h at sea level and 140 km/h at maximum altitude.

The 35,000-kilometre journey, which is planned to start on March 3 in Abu Dhabi, will take them five months, in that time they will be flying for a total of 25 days, with breaks in between for educational and promotional events at the destination cities.

They will land in 12 locations including China's Chongqing, scheduled for March 17, and Nanjing four days later.

Borschberg spoke to the South China Morning Post before embarking on the historic journey to traverse the globe, harnessing only the power of the sun.

The Solar Impulse 2 on one of the test runs. Photo: Solar Impulse

The cross-Pacific leg, between Nanjing and Hawaii, is going to be the most challenging, as the plane must fly non-stop day and night for five days – something that has never been done in the history of aviation.

However, the pilots say the mission is more about promoting clean and sustainable energy than breaking aviation records.

"Solar Impulse is not made to carry passengers, but to carry messages," said Piccard, who comes from a family of explorers and scientists. The chairman and initiator of the project is no stranger to amazing feats: in 1999, he made the first ever non-stop round-the-world balloon flight in 20 days with a co-pilot.

Meanwhile Borschberg, an engineer, entrepreneur and Swiss air-force-trained pilot, says he is as passionate about flying as he is about clean energy.

He led a team of 80 technicians and engineers to build the "super-light, super-robust and energy-efficient" Solar Impulse 2, equipped with four brushless motors and lithium batteries that give it 94 per cent energy efficiency.

This means the plane theoretically has unlimited endurance. It is a bigger and better version of the prototype Solar Impulse 1 that had already completed flights across Europe and across America in 2011 through 2013.

The pilots are Solar Impulse executives André Borschberg (left) and Bertrand Piccard. Photo: Solar Impulse

But the trek will not be easy. The pilot must live alone in the 3.8 cubic metre non-pressurised cockpit, with outside weather conditions ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to +40 degrees Celsius.

For the cross-Pacific and cross-Atlantic legs, the pilot may only get to sleep for two to three hours a day. While they are catching some much-needed shut-eye, the plane will be on autopilot with real-time monitoring from their ground control centre in Monaco.

Borschberg says he has been practicing meditation and yoga for years, while Piccard is a trained doctor of the human mind, with hypnosis being his area of expertise. Both of them will take advantage of meditation and self-hypnosis techniques to make sure they will have good concentration when flying and can put themselves to sleep quickly.

The plane will fly at an altitude just below commercial passenger airliners during the day, and descend to 1,500 metres at night to save energy.

The key thrust of the pollution-free mission, Borschberg and Piccard say, is proving that green technology is already available – so all people need to do is change the way they do things in order to safeguard the environment’s and mankind’s future.

Even before their whirlwind tour of the world has started, Borschberg says Solar Impulse is already eyeing next level technological innovation to make satellite-like drones, potentially with Chinese partners onboard.

A comparison of the wingspans of the Solar Impulse 2 (above) and a Boeing 747 jumbo jet (below). Photo: Solar Impulse

"China is the world’s largest solar energy producer, but unfortunately when we started the [Solar Impulse 2] project, it was a little bit too early for us to contact the Chinese companies," Borschberg said.

"For our third airplane, the next generation, we may integrate Chinese technology, and we’ve had discussions with Chinese companies such as Hanergy. This is absolutely possible for the future," he said.

Borschberg envisions the Solar Impulse 3 as an unmanned solar plane that can fly at an altitude of 20,000 metres for six months non-stop.

"It can have surveillance and communication usage, basically replacing part of what satellites are doing these days, but at much cheaper costs and with much cleaner energy," he said.

China recently committed to doubling its renewable energy use from 10 per cent of its energy mix in 2013 to 20 per cent by 2030.

The country poured in US$90 billion into clean energy development last year – which topped world spending for the sector above the United States (US$52 billion) and Japan (US$41 billion), according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That drove the 2014 global investment in clean energy to US$310 billion.

Solar Impulse 2 is almost as large as an Airbus A380 but is much slimmer and weighs only as much as a car. The cockpit measures 38 cubic metres. Photo: Solar Impulse

"China is already number one in solar technology. It is very likely going to be number one in all renewable energy," Borschberg said.

Public awareness and governmental commitment are key to changing the world’s energy consumption pattern, he added.

Solar Impulse boasts a long list of partners and supporters who have produced cutting-edge solutions for all mechanical, navigational and human challenges the pilots may face in their globe-trotting adventure.

European technology leaders Solvay, Omega, Schindler and ABB are the main partners, while a dozen energy and aeronautical companies signed on as suppliers and consultants.

Thirty years ago, exploring alternative energy only became a salient issue when oil prices increased – but fizzled out when oil prices stabilised, Borschberg said.

"I think this has changed now. For the first time it seems to me that now the growth of renewable energy has got its own momentum," he said, citing the commercial success of the electric car Tesla as an example.

"The technologies these days are such that makes solar energy extremely interesting from an economic point of view, so this is the good news. The bad news is a lot of these green technologies are still not used yet," he said.

Approximately US$160 million has been invested in the Solar Impulse 2 project since the first feasibility study 12 years ago – averaging around US$14 million a year, Borschberg said.

Yet this is modest when compared to the cost of having a Grand Prix sporting event. "What we spend on Solar Impulse is only 4 per cent of a Formula One race", which has a budget of around US$300-400 million a year, Borschberg said.

"It is not a question of cost, it is a question of change," he said.