Swiss explorers Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg are the founders, pilots and driving force behind Solar Impulse, the first airplane of perpetual endurance, able to fly day and night without a drop of fuel. By attempting the first Round the World Solar Flight, they want to demonstrate that clean technologies and renewable energies can achieve the impossible. For the Solar Impulse team, pioneering spirit and innovation can change the world.
The Round-The-World flight started from Abu Dhabi, on March 9. The route includes stop-overs in Oman, India, Myanmar and China. After trying to cross the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii, Si2 should fly across the U.S.A. and over the Atlantic Ocean, heading back to Abu Dhabi.
Solar Impulse 2 was built to take up the challenge of achieving the first round-the-world solar flight.
This revolutionary airplane will have to do what no one has ever done before: fly through 5 consecutive days
and nights without using any fuel, so as to cross oceans from one continent to the next.
This requires the optimization of new kinds of technology and a drastic reduction in energy consumption. Solar
Impulse’s 80 engineers and technicians, under André Borschberg’s leadership, have had to apply highly innovative solutions.
Whilst Solar Impulse is not the first solar aircraft project, it’s certainly the most ambitious. It is a real
airborne technology lab with virtually endless endurance, capable of crossing oceans and continents by remaining in
the air for several days and nights in a row.
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