Solar flyers take to the skies

Renewable-powered air travel on the horizon

Determined to show that solar energy is a viable source of power for aircraft, a Swiss balloonist plans to fly around the world in a PV-panelled glider. Dr Bertrand Piccard, a psychiatrist by day, will step aboard the Solar Impulse alongside his co-pilot for the epic 40,000-mile journey in 2011 if everything goes to plan at the testing stage between now and then.

So far, the furthest a solar-powered plane has travelled is 163 miles. Yet the team constructing the glider at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne is convinced that this ultra-light model, with inbuilt solar panels, will be able to glide above cloud cover during the day, and continue at a lower altitude throughout the night, running off the battery. Solar Impulse spokesman Phil Mundwiller “truly believes solar power will fuel commercial aircraft in the future” but is realistic that it won’t be in the next ten or fifteen years. The development of this technology is just one step on the way.

Meanwhile, down in the south of France, wind farm developer Theolia is working on a hot air balloon designed to cross the Atlantic from Senegal to Martinique on 100% renewable energy. Its co-pilots, an aeronautics expert and an adventurer, will make the 5,000-mile journey next year in the basket of a solar-panelled helium-filled balloon. The contraption will also draw on energy from the sea, via a long cable attached to a curved carbon foil running under the water’s surface. The Windream One project team insist that they’re not interested in the glory of breaking records, but in proving a point.
- Hannah Bullock

2 May 2007

Hannah Bullock