We hope to see in our children a perfected reflection of ourselves. So we try to bring them up telling them the right things, instilling in them good values, and redirecting their missteps. Though, in reality, our children are an inalterable mirror image not of what we say, but of what we do. Such thoughts may arise when considering the words of Bertrand Piccard, the inventor of the solar-powered airplane, Solar Impulse.
In 1931, my grandfather became the first person in human history to enter the stratosphere. He wanted to prove that humans could survive at such heights — in an airtight cabin, obviously. The next stage in the development of aviation was made possible by the evidence gathered from this feat. The higher you fly, the less resistance you face. Thus, less fuel is spent, which is much better for the environment.
And when, in 1960, my father dove into the Marianas Trench, his goal was to prove that even at a depth of 11 kilometers, there is life. At that time, the government wanted to bury radioactive waste in the ocean depths, assuming that these trenches were so deep, with no oxygen or sunlight, that no living thing would possibly survive there, and that thus, nothing could be harmed. While submerged, my father saw a fish and three shrimp at the bottom of the Trench. This proved that even at the bottom of the ocean, there is oxygen, and a connection to the surface; the water circulates, and if we dump waste into these trenches, it will soon pollute the entire ocean. My father’s achievement was the beginning of a new phase in the fight to protect our environment.
You embark on something, and people say it’s impossible, that you’ve lost your mind. Then, you find a solution. People see that it works, and say that it was obvious the whole time
I grew up in this sort of environment. I grew up with the understanding that scientific research must be used to preserve our planet. That’s why I created Solar Impulse, a manned aircraft capable of flying for an indefinite period of time on solar power alone, charging by day and consuming energy at night.
Even with modern technological development, it’s very hard to build a plane that can fly day and night without fuel. That was the challenge we were up against, and we did it. I’m confident that in 20 years the construction of these machines will have become ordinary. They probably won’t be able to accommodate hundreds of passengers, but we will have them. And as lighter materials and higher-powered batteries are invented, they’ll become much easier to use — the same thing that happened with computers. The first computers were the size of a house, with only four worldwide. Now, we all have them in our pockets.
My prediction is that we’ll have electric planes capable of accom- modating fifty passengers within the next decade. They’ll travel short distances of around 500 kilometers; like cars, they’ll be charged from the grid. Though they won’t be able to fly for an unlimited amount of time, as Solar Impulse is able to do. This is only the first stage, but it’s a very interesting one. We need noiseless, zero-emission aircraft, that will keep the earth and atmosphere clean, and that can land without disturbing the surrounding areas, even in residential districts.
I believe that they’ll be cheaper to manufacture than fuel-powered planes, because they are much more economical; they have a simpler design. Jet engines are very complex devices with a great many parts, whereas electrical engines are much simpler — there’s no fuel tank, just batteries and wire. Plus, you don’t have to adjust the centre of gravity — a regular plane is heavier during takeoff and lighter during landing. An electric plane always has the same weight.
When I began this project, airplane manufacturers all said the same thing, that the idea had no future. I was in meetings with very high-ranking members of Boeing and Airbus. Then last year, two weeks before I landed in Abu-Dhabi, Airbus and NASA announced the launch of their new programs to develop electric planes. I guess they changed their minds.
This is what I love about the idea of being a pioneer: you embark on something, and people say it’s impossible, that you’ve lost your mind. Then, you find a solution. People see that it works, and say that it was obvious the whole time. It’s always these three phases.
Now, Solar Impulse 2 is in a hangar in Zurich, disassembled. It can fly, but its mission is complete. I’m not sure that it’ll ever take off again; it will probably find its way to a museum.
During our flight around the globe, I was again reminded of how direly we need environmentally friendly technologies. When you’re flying over America, there are areas where all the mountains have had their tops removed for coal mining; it’s all black. In the ocean, there are similar problems. Billions of tons of plastic, floating on the water. It’s terrible for the fish and the birds.
But the most frightening type of pollution is invisible. Carbon dioxide. The emission of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is changing our climate; it’s changing the balance of nature. We have yet to comprehend that nature has its own balance, and that it’s just as fragile asthatofhumans.Ourbody’snormaltemperatureis36.6 degrees Celsius. Any lower, and we get cold and hungry; any higher, and we get sick from the heat. The same thing happens to our planet. Its balance is determined by the wind, the ocean currents, and the equilibrium between polar ice and desert heat. It’s a very intricate system, and humans are disturbing its balance. Now, enormous masses of air, both too dry and too moist, are moving over our planet erratically, creating chaos in the atmosphere. This is evident from the statistics over the last hundred years; the weather used to be much more stable. The rainy season in India always used to begin the same week every year. Now, the world has become unpredictable.
Carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced. What’s causing them? Cars, industry, heating systems. They’re released when we burn fos- sil fuels. Some of the gas leaks into the atmosphere due to the use of old technology. The internal combustion engines in our cars operate such that 73% of the energy from the fuel is lost. But an electric engine can hit 93% efficiency, as was done by Solar Impulse. This shows that the world is in need of electric engines, heated houses, heat pumps, and LED bulbs — with all these in use, emissions would be reduced by half. It’s not even a question of sacrifice, but one of investing in change. This is what I try to explain when meeting with different governments, who still don’t seem to understand.
