The dream of Piccard-us

Swiss adventurer, shrink and family man Bertrand Piccard has finally presented a model of his solar plane after four years of research. Solar Impulse is supposed to travel around the world day and night using the sun as its only power source. Piccard, who along with co-pilot Brian Jones, was the first to make a non-stop around-the-world balloon flight, hopes to have a prototype in the air by next autumn, and carry out a first night flight in 2009. As proof that his project is not pie in the sky, Piccard has managed to convince some big investors to pony up much of the budget, set at approximately SFr70 million. If the global flight goes ahead, the biggest threat will be strong winds: Piccard will be hoping that an “invisible hand” will be guiding the project this time round too if he is to be successful.

 solar