Word: piccards
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This odyssey is not merely an epic adventure. "The achievement won't be just to go around the world," says the man behind the project, Bertrand Piccard, "but to encourage a complete paradigm shift on how we use energy." Piccard, a 49-year-old Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut, knows a thing or two about high-altitude derring-do. In 1999, he and a partner, Brian Jones, became the first people to circumnavigate the earth in a balloon, but it rankled Piccard that doing so required burning nearly four tons of propane gas. "The balloon flight was a personal dream...
...overall budget - from a trio of high-profile sponsors: Swiss watchmaker Omega, part of the Swatch Group, which brings expertise in both miniaturization and efficient energy use; Deutsche Bank, which is keen to green its investment portfolio; and Belgian chemical and materials group Solvay, which backed the exploits of Piccard's grand-father, Auguste, when he co-piloted a balloon beyond the stratospheric altitude...
...heavy clouds. During the day the HB-SIA is expected to climb to 28,000 ft. (8,500 m) so it can preserve battery power after sunset by gliding down to 10,000 ft. (3,000 m) at night. For as much as one-third of the night, says Piccard, the plane will be able to fly its descending course without engine power. But once it reaches its nighttime cruising altitude, the burden of powering the plane will fall to the batteries alone...
...challenge, says Piccard, is to keep going until the next sunrise before the batteries are empty: "We have very little margin of error from night into day. Each dawn will be a moment of incredible suspense." For the 2011 flight, he and Boschberg will do alternating stints of five days and five nights between landings. A day on the ground spent charging in the sunlight should be enough to get the plane back into the air the next morning for another stage in its globe-girdling journey...
...delicate enterprise, complicated by meteorological challenges and the ungainliness of a plane this big and light. Even Piccard doesn't envision solar planes replacing today's airliners anytime soon, but that's not the point. To reduce emissions, he believes, aviation will eventually need to wean itself from fossil fuels. "To make reasonable use of any alternative," he says, "we have to become lighter and more aerodynamic to reduce consumption." Solar Impulse promises to generate an array of futuristic insights - and some old-fashioned thrills along...