#pacificflight

[solarimpulse2]

Completing the last leg of the Pacific Crossing

Bertrand Piccard, with the help of the Solar Impulse Mission Engineers at the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Monaco, took off from Kalaeloa Airport in Hawaii, made it through three energy neutral mornings, flew over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and later landed at Moffett Airfield, Mountain View, California.

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Flying for several days and nights in a solar-powered airplane: Bertrand Piccard had been dreaming of this moment for many years. So when the Monaco Mission Control Center (MCC) called the team in Hawaii to say that the flight might have to be postponed due to strong winds, I’m sure you can only imagine the look on his face…

To everyone’s great relief, the wind died down after a while and the ground crew was able to take Solar Impulse 2 back out of the hangar and onto the runway! Before leaving, the pilot and plane, along with the rest of the team, were blessed by a Hawaiian Kahuna, and Bertrand made a speech to thank the team all over the world for sharing his dream with him.

 Thank you to the whole #solarimpulse team all over the world for making my dream a reality! #futureisclean pic.twitter.com/af4LZGG6Ur

— Bertrand PICCARD (@bertrandpiccard)

April 21, 2016

As the sun rose over the horizon, Si2 left the ground at 6:15am local time, leaving Kalaeloa Airport behind and entering the vast Pacific Ocean. Destination: Moffett Airfield, Mountain View, California, USA. “Takeoff is the most exciting moment but also the moment where all the unknown still lies ahead”, confided Bertrand Piccard. HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, a friend of his and a partner of the project, was at the MCC to give him the “Go,” like he previously did in 2015. A real member of the Solar Impulse crew!

 BREAKING NEWS #Si2 has just taken off to #SF with @BertrandPiccard at the commands. The adventure is back on! pic.twitter.com/qHgtNJGLcU

— SOLAR IMPULSE (@solarimpulse)

April 21, 2016

 The MCC, a team of engineers built and trained by André Borschberg, monitored the pilot and guided him across the sky. Meanwhile, the team in Hawaii packed up, said a nostalgic goodbye to the hangar that had welcomed them since July 2015, and took off to California.

In the air, Bertrand was overwhelmed with emotion. As he reached high altitudes, and put his oxygen mask on, he thought about his grandfather Auguste Piccard who had invented the pressurized cabin. Si2 could not be equipped with one because of weight constraints. After 18 hours of flight, his thoughts turned to Amelia Earhart, who flew solo from Hawaii to California in 18 hours in 1935. She was also driven by the desire to explore the unknown, to push technology to its limits and by a belief that what’s impossible today might just become normal tomorrow.

Earth Day rolled around the corner one day after takeoff and Bertrand talked to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon live from the cockpit in front of the 175 countries that had signed the Paris Climate Agreement just hours before. He congratulated the 175 ratifiers for their ambitious decision: “What you are doing today in New York, signing the Paris Climate Agreement is about more than protecting the environment. It is the launch of the clean technology revolution.”

Flying over the ocean also reminded him of his father Jacques Piccard who reached the floor of Mariana Trench in 1960, the deepest part in the ocean. His father was driven with a similar vision: to protect the environment through exploration. 

In Monaco, the team prepared Bertrand for the landing and assessed the weather on the ground. Just before landing, he passed through San Francisco at around 5PM local time, for a flyover of the picturesque Golden Gate Bridge, giving passersby the chance to look at Si2, #futureisclean!

Next to the plane, André Borschberg waved from a helicopter he was flying in order to catch some great shots of Si2. The visionary and the entrepreneur who, together, made the impossible possible, flew side by side in the American sky. This was not the first time they flew next to one another like this. Exactly three years before, they did the same with Solar Impulse 1 during the Across America mission: a beautiful recurrence.

Meanwhile, the ground crew that had already arrived in California were already at Moffett Airfield setting up the mobile hangar. This mobile hangar is a revolutionary structure unique to Si2 that was designed by Solar Impulse engineers to protect Si2 when it lands in airports that do not have hangers to keep special aircrafts like Si2. It took the team a total of 6 hours to set it up and get Si2 safely inside.

Hey #California! I'm in your airspace. Here is a little selfie I took during my last training flight.#captionthis pic.twitter.com/VSeD3KnwmA

— Bertrand PICCARD (@bertrandpiccard)

April 23, 2016

It was 11:44PM local time when Bertrand touched down in Moffett Airfield after a flight of 62 hours and 27 minutes, becoming the fourth pilot to have flown over 24 hours.

BREAKING NEWS #Si2 and @bertrandpiccard just landed in #SF after 3 days of flight without fuel #futureisclean pic.twitter.com/BRvxUI2om6

— SOLAR IMPULSE (@solarimpulse)

April 24, 2016

He had arrived in America, the land of pioneers and the NASA astronauts of his childhood, thus completing the Pacific Crossing. What a feat and a great way to resume the Solar Impulse solar flights around the world! When the first airplane had landed in Moffett in 2013, Google had decided to become a partner of the adventure, and three years later, co-founder Sergey Brin was waiting for Bertrand on the Moffett runway.

 Thank you for believing in #SolarImpulse and for being here tonight Sergey Brin @google pic.twitter.com/1pq0qYOrrb

— Bertrand PICCARD (@bertrandpiccard)

April 24, 2016

Hello California! After thanking the team and the partners for making the project possible and for believing in his vision, Bertrand gave some interviews to share his amazing experience with the rest of the world. And to express his excitement of being in Silicon Valley, where many share the same #futureisclean vision and see clean technologies as a profitable opportunity.

After a few hours of rest, the engineers at the Mission Control Center in Monaco went back to work, trying to find a weather window that would allow them to reach their next destination. This destination is always unknown and depends on where the winds decide to take Si2!

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[solarimpulse2]

Cocoa Over the Pacific: Si2 in the Footsteps of Amelia Earhart

In the hours before Amelia Earhart took off to attempt the first-ever solo flight between Hawaii and California, she stood on a wet runway, next to a wet airplane, looking out at a weather window that was frustratingly perfect.

Photograph from National Geographic News

In her own words, written in an article for National Geographic magazine: “Unless I took off, despite the local meteorological upset, I might be held indefinitely.” Not unlike Solar Impulse 2 and Bertrand Piccard, though in the case of Solar Impulse, it was wind, not rain!

There are other similarities of course. Earhart took of from Wheeler Army Airfield, on the island of O’ahu, just 16 miles from Kalaeloa Airport where Solar Impulse 2 began its journey yesterday. The world’s press was watching; Earhart connected on a two-way radio telephone using the call sign KHABQ to radio stations in Honoloulu, San Francisco and Los Angeles, while Bertrand has responded to emails and done live interviews with journalists from around the world. And then of course, there were all the same concerns about weight, food, and safety. During the 18 hours she was in the air, Earhart ate a boiled egg, drank tomato juice and enjoyed “the most memorable cup of hot chocolate I’ve ever had.” Bertrand will need a bit more nourishment over the three days it will take him to reach Moffett Airfield, but will certainly share the same view that made Earhart’s cocoa so spectacular. But perhaps the most important parallels are the desire to explore the unknown, to push technology to it’s limits and a belief that what’s impossible today, might just become normal tomorrow. “To me it seems that regular air transport across both oceans is inevitable, and will probably come about sooner than most people suspect,” Earhart wrote in May 1935. Imagine what she would have said if someone had told her that not only commercial jets, but a plane powered only by the sun, would be following in her footsteps 81 years later.

[solarimpulse2]

Top 16 moments: André’s 2015

Bertrand Piccard let me cross the Pacific Ocean in spite of desperately wishing to do this exploration flight himself.

My son, Deniz, and his wife, Ludivine, gave birth to a wonderful daughter and made me a grandfather for the first time, it is such an incredible feeling.

My son, Teo, introduced me to Vipassana, 10 days of silent and intensive meditation, the perfect start of 2016

My daughter, Ela, who brings my energy to the highest level through her smile, her spontaneity and appreciation of life.

Our mission director, Raymond Clerc, cleared my view in the most difficult situation over the Pacific Ocean, which helped me come up with the right decisions.

Peter Frei, our configuration engineer, has been with me since the beginning of Solar Impulse and has always given me his honest recommendations, even if he knew it would not please me.

If one person really impressed me this year, it was Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC. She has been so active, involved and effective in making COP21 this year a success despite the difficult and diverging political and environmental views between countries.

When I arrived in Hawaii with Solar Impulse, I had the opportunity to enjoy a fantastic meal prepared by an incredible chef, Peter Foster, just hours after landing. It was a dream and such a nice way to reconnect with our terrestrial life!

I discovered laughter yoga every morning in Ahmedabad with Ranjula who led me through this new practice.

Dr. Li has since two years helped us connect with Chinese authorities to make our flight possible and welcome! Besides her professional obligations, I appreciated her personal concern for the whole Solar Impulse team.

As we were considering staying in Japan over the winter because of the bad weather over the Pacific Ocean, I met the Head of Sapporo airport, who kindly offered us to use their airport if conditions further deteriorated.

When I had to divert to Nagoya in Japan during my flight from China to Hawaii, the Governor of Nagoya Prefecture gave us a warm welcome, which made it all easier. He even invited us to stay longer and further develop Solar Impulse’s activities there.

In Abu Dhabi I performed some helicopter flight missions under the control of a security agent. I was so impressed by his dedication to his country and its Leader. It helped me further understand how the country is governed.

I am so thankful to my friend, David Allen, who provided incredible hospitality to my entire family when waiting for me to cross over the Pacific Ocean. Thank god he didn’t know I would take so much time to finally make it!

And my love for my wife, Yasemin, who has been so supportive and loving each day of this year.

During the last days of 2015, I have been reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari. Read it if you want to step back and take some distance from what is happening in our world!

André Borschberg