Blue planet foundation impulse series#

Piccard piloted the ninth segment of the round-the-world trip and landed the Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) in Moffett Field in California on 24 April 2016 after three days of flying from Kalaeloa Airport, Hawaii.Īndré Borschberg and Piccard completed their circumnavigation of the globe with the solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse on 26 July 2016. In order to switch pilots, stopovers were scheduled at locations in India, Myanmar, China, The United States, and southern Europe or northern Africa. The voyage consisted of multiple flights starting on 9 March and was scheduled to conclude about five months later. In 2015, Solar Impulse set out to accomplish the first round-the-world solar flight in history. There were several stops along the way, including Washington, D.C. in 2013, he and Borschberg traversed the United States from Mountain View, California to JFK Airport in New York City. The first leg in the one-seater aircraft was piloted by Borschberg from Payerne, Switzerland to Madrid, Spain, and the second leg by Piccard from Madrid to Rabat, Morocco. In 2012, it made its first intercontinental flight from Switzerland to Morocco in two legs. In 2011, it landed at Bourget Field in Paris. In 2010, Solar Impulse 1 (Si1) made its first nighttime flight. Owing to international funding for the project, the Solar Impulse is a European craft, not a Swiss one, despite scientific and medical assistance from the EPFL and Hirslanden Clinique Cecil. The first company to fund the project officially was Semper, after Eric Freymond was convinced of its future success by Piccard. The project was financed by a number of private companies and individuals in Europe. By 2006, he had assembled a multi-disciplinary team of fifty specialists from six countries, assisted by approximately one hundred outside advisers. Piccard began construction in 2007, and conducted brief test flights in 2009 with André Borschberg. Solar Impulse ĭuring November 2003, Piccard announced a project, in cooperation with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), for a solar-powered, long-range aircraft named Solar Impulse. In recognition of this accomplishment, Piccard received awards including the Harmon Trophy, the FAI Gold Air Medal and the Charles Green Salver.

Blue planet foundation impulse series#

Piccard and Jones, in cooperation with a team of meteorologists on the ground, maneuvered into a series of jet streams that carried them 25,361 miles to land in Egypt after a 45,755 km (28,431 mi) flight lasting 19 days, 21 hours, and 47 minutes. On 1 March 1999, Piccard and Brian Jones took off in the balloon Breitling Orbiter 3, a bright red, carbon-composite, egg-shaped craft measuring sixteen feet long and seven feet in diameter, from Château d'Oex in Switzerland on the first successful non-stop balloon circumnavigation of the globe- the first in-atmospheric circumnavigation not requiring any fuel for forward motion. He became the European hang-glider aerobatics champion in 1985. In Europe, he was one of the pioneers of hang gliding and microlight flying during the 1970s. Piccard obtained licences to fly balloons, airplanes, gliders, and motorized gliders. Piccard has since become a lecturer and supervisor at the Swiss Medical Society for Hypnosis (SMSH). He received a degree from the University of Lausanne in psychiatry. He developed early interests in flight and human behaviour in extreme situations. Initially afraid of heights, at age 16 he took up hang gliding. His grandfather Auguste Piccard was a balloonist and undersea explorer, and his father Jacques Piccard was an undersea explorer.Īs a child, Piccard was taken to the launch of several space flights from Cape Canaveral. Piccard was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is the founder and chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation.

In 2012 Piccard was awarded a Champions of the Earth award by the UN Environment Programme. He was the initiator, chairman, and pilot, with André Borschberg, of Solar Impulse, the first successful round-the-world solar-powered flight. Along with Brian Jones, he was the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe, in a balloon named Breitling Orbiter 3. Bertrand Piccard FRSGS (born 1 March 1958) is a Swiss explorer, psychiatrist and environmentalist.