Solar Impulse 2 around the planet
LE MONDE SCIENCE ET TECHNO | • Updated | By Francis Marmande
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Monaco, 10 February under the chairmanship of Prince Albert II, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, very stylish combinations (Prince is taking an identical jacket), present their challenge: the first solar flight around the world with the aircraft Solar Impulse 2 .
Neither fuel or pollution: while clean and sustainable energy. Twelve steps performed alternately by the two drivers, which involves crossing two oceans.Five days and five nights over the seas, inshallah! Who will conduct the first stage, whose departure will take place in Abu Dhabi on March 1? "If we told you we will draw a coin, you We believe not, but it may be the case. It takes pioneers to break with the prevailing conservatism. »
Who it good smile in response style? Of one or the other, the choice (in this case, Bertrand Piccard), as they are similar, both are in harmony, as their profound differences are integrated into a double kind without further: "If all couples walked like ours, it would not be there. Our adventure is a response to the needs of the whole society. Developing countries understand this very well.Between us? André becomes increasingly shrink, Bertrand, increasingly engineer. From a psychological perspective, our relationship is exciting. We build on our differences. One plus one equals three. »
ONE OF THE KEY ELEMENTS OF THE CHALLENGE IS THEIR RELATIONSHIP
This is the response of the other - the same, perhaps - the innocent question: "And you pacsez you when? "Families, women and children are well. But one of the key elements of the challenge is their relationship: Bertrand Piccard, the initiator, the messenger, a psychiatrist at passage. André Borschberg, co-founder, fighter pilot, engineer at the head of a team of 80 people. Mystic and mathematics; logic and technique: "We are forced to face life philosophy. »
Piccard the coil of a Laurent Baffie would be psychoanalyzed. André Borschberg, larger size, a very earthly look, something solid, a generous laugh.Their weight difference has forced designers to add more than 1 meter to the size of the Solar Impulse 1. Which does not ask for much. With its 72 meters, the solar airplane perpetual energy exceeds the Boeing 747. "On board, we have all kinds of interactive instruments; with the satellite system, relays, decisive, are insured continuously with the control center based in Monaco, but also with the media, universities, etc. »
Given the empennage, the aircraft autonomously which turns off in flight, with its 17,248 thick monocrystalline silicon cells of 135 microns, solar glider looks like one of the first flying machines of the pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright (early twentieth century). The fabric covered fuselage is long and graceless. The cockpit, very comfortable - first class seat that can be toilets and gym machine - equipped with as many screens as a studio driven by Quincy Jones, the ovoid style of the popular Isetta in years 1950.
THE PROOF OF THE POTENTIAL OF CLEAN AND UNLIMITED RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
In the air, all the lights on, the Solar Impulse is superb. It does not bode Special Aviation (who knows?), Is not convenient to the ground, lack of flexibility in control, but makes the flying proof of the potential of clean technologies and the unlimited production renewable energy. "The" problems "do not concern us.What we propose are solutions. »
In Piccard, pioneering spirit, it is a first kind. Bertrand, aeronaut, co-directed the first round the world balloon (1999): "After two extraordinary days - in two words - was struggling to regain the world as we had left it. "Bertrand is the son of Jacques (1922-2008), driver bathyscaphe Trieste designed by the grandfather Auguste (1884-1962), the first to put the nose into the stratosphere in a balloon.Besides Jules, who had installed the phone in Switzerland: "It is the same spirit that animates us with Andre, but we entered the era of regulations, exemptions and prohibitions never end. Today, it is not certain that the risk taken in 1969 by NASA to walk on the moon would be accepted. »
Weapons vigils before leap into the unknown, we have personally known three: that of Destination Moon (Tintin), that of a glider that had the ambition (disappointed) to take off the National Centre for Saint-Auban (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) to win by a stroke wing Tunisia (1994) and this one, at the inauguration of the mission control center, the Monaco Mission Center (MCC ) in Monaco. Even liturgy quiet joy, edgy excitement, want it to succeed.
Take-off, a guy in a cap accompanies the albatross taking his giant wing, as is a glider. There sec pedal bicycle. In Dayton, Ohio, the Wright brothers owned a bicycle shop.
- Francis Marmande
Journalist in the world
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