What's the next adventure?
This is undoubtedly the most common question that I am asked - even now when the hair has greyed and thinned, and when it takes a little longer to get out of a comfy chair than it used to! Following the extraordinary success of the Breitling Orbiter 3, I continue to enjoy my flying - both in lighter and heavier than air machines. Whilst I cherish my role as balloon instructor and examiner, I still get really excited about new challenges that come my way.
The Solar Impulse Project (2003-2014)
It was never going to be easy to find a project to follow Breitling Orbiter. Bertrand and I agreed that whatever we did together should be meaningful and useful as well as another great adventure. So here it is ..... Solar Impulse!
Meaningful because until now man has never stayed aloft in an aeroplane powered by the sun for more than a few hours, let alone overnight. So the long road to achieving the first round-the-world flight will be paved with a host of record-breaking firsts, new scientific breakthroughs and a pioneering spirit for the development of renewable energy resources.
Useful in that the technological breakthroughs in the fields of intelligent composite materials and lightweight structures, symbiotic human/machine interfaces and energy storage and management will find applications far beyond solar-powered flight. Useful too because the team intend to use this project as an opportunity to promote the ideal of sustainable development with an emphasis on renewable energy.
Scientific innovation and advances in technology are often viewed with scepticism and mistrust, particularly in the early stages. But if we are to halt and reverse our headlong decline towards the destruction of our environment, it is going to be science that plays a major role. Whilst individual efforts to prevent waste and conserve resources are of course vitally important, it is unrealistic to expect people to sacrifice their quality of life and governments to hold back short-term economic development of their countries. Surely much better to encourage new technology, embrace it, and put it to use for the benefit of all.
The project has been running since it's inception in 2003, and quite a lot has happened in this period. We have a prototype aeroplane which proved itself right away with a 26 hour flight plus a flight from Switzerland to Brussels and demonstration flights at the Paris Air Show in 2011.
I regret that I am no longer one of the principal pilots - age and health issues have crept up and truthfully there are better qualified pilots than myself working within the project.
The build of the second generation aeroplane has started, which will be the one to hopefully realise the goal of flying around the world. You can keep up with progress on the Solar Impulse website.
You can see the photo gallery here.