零燃料的太阳能飞机

It’s fully experimental and we never thought we could fly internationally with this airplane because it’s a… in some ways it’s test bench, but it flew so well, that we accepted the invitation of Brussels, and we accepted the invitation to present this airplane in Le Bourget, Paris.

This airplane really wants to demonstrate what we can achieve with the technologies of today, in terms of energy saving, in terms of renewable energy. And when an airplane can fly with no fuel, it’s a really good message to encourage people to use the same clean tech for cars, heating systems, lighting, construction of houses. So it’s really an encouragement to pioneering spirit in the energy and the technological world.

But also is it not a flight of fancy, because I mean, we've seen many airplanes over the years where it’s the dream of somebody. But the reality is, what can this teach us?

Solar Impulse can teach that you can achieve impossible things, or so-called impossible things with renewable energies. We need to save our natural resources. We need to plan the after-fuel future. We need to create jobs. We need to run the economy to have a good growth with a clean tech, and at the same time, have a reduced impact on the environment. So those are challenges we have to address. So, you see, pioneering spirit is something our world desperately needs.

But as the pilot, what was it like to fly this? It must be an extraordinary feeling. It’s the size of A340 wingspan with the power of what? A scooter or a lawnmower?

It makes us, makes me very close to nature, well, first, during the day, I can fly, and I can collect even more energy that I use during the flight, flight from Brussels to Paris, if I would have more batteries, I could have taken this energy and given it to the grid, so that’s very strange feelings.

This kind of plane obviously is never gonna fly passengers, or am I just being one of those negative people?

When Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, he was alone on board, the plane was full of gasoline. And everybody thought, Oh, that's a pity, for if you want fly New York-Paris, we have to become pilots ourselves. And 25 years later, there were two hundred people in the airplanes. So Solar Impulse is full of batteries, just one pilot on board. Who knows what’s going to happen in the future?