Solar flight explorer Bertrand Piccard is forever seeking a higher plane

"Nothing is impossible" has been the constant mantra of record-breaking Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard, who is attempting to make history again with the first round-the-world solar flight. Piccard and his compatriot Andre Borschberg are trying to complete the trip on a fully sun-powered plane, Solar Impulse 2. Borschberg on Monday completed the first leg of the marathon journey, expected to be a five-month voyage with the two pilots taking turns flying the one-seater plane. By the time it arrived in Ahmedabad, in western India, on Tuesday, the plane had flown 1,468km, the organisers said. With Piccard at the controls, the plane's backers say it was the longest point-to-point distance flown by a solar-powered plane. Piccard is the scion of a dynasty of trailblazers: his grandfather Auguste was the first man to climb to the stratosphere in a balloon while his father Jacques was the first to reach the deepest point of the world's oceans. Born on March 1, 1958 in the picturesque lakeside city of Lausanne, Piccard was greatly inspired by his illustrious forebears and was fascinated by challenge from a very early age. He has said a defining moment in his life was the lift-off of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969 which landed the first humans on the moon. The 11-year-old Piccard got to witness the historic moment live from Cape Canaveral, Florida since Wernher von Braun, the inventor of the Apollo rockets, was a family friend. "The moment was a turning point in my life," he says on his website. "There and then I thought: 'These astronauts, who are now setting off for the moon, have a dream, and that dream is greater than the fear of failure. "These heroes dare to do the impossible. They are doing something that no human being has done before them. That is true pioneering spirit.'" From a very early age, Piccard was fascinated by human behaviour in extreme situations, and got a degree in psychiatry from the University of Lausanne. He also obtained licenses to fly balloons, aeroplanes, gliders and motorised gliders and became one of the pioneers of hang gliding and microlight flying in Europe during the 1970s. On March 1, 1999 Piccard and fellow adventurer Brian Jones set off from Switzerland on the first non-stop balloon circumnavigation of the globe without using any fuel. The two men, in close touch with a team of meteorologists on the ground, caught rides in a series of jet streams that saw them land in Egypt after a flight lasting nearly 20 days. "Everyone has dreams," Piccard said. "The only thing is there are those who know they are achievable and do everything they can to make them come true and there are those who don't believe so." The balloon trip took him over India and Piccard said he was happy to be stopping off in the country this time around. "Sixteen years ago, I flew around the world nonstop in a balloon and I flew over India. Today, I am very happy to be back," he said when he landed. The Solar Impulse 2 plane that launched its maiden journey on Monday is the successor of Solar Impulse, which proved its ability to store enough power in lithium batteries during the day to keep flying at night. The initial Solar Impulse plane was put through its paces in Europe, crossed the Mediterranean to reach Morocco and traversed the United States in 2013 without using a drop of fossil fuel. "Very often human beings are living like on autopilot, reacting automatically with what happens," Piccard says. "What interests me about the life of an explorer is you are in the unknown; you are out of your habits. You are obliged to produce new answers to what life is bringing to you. These are the moments that wake you up from the automatic." Piccard is also passionate about spirituality and hypnosis and has authored several books, including a self-help guide to achieving a more balanced life. His other pet obsession is environmental protection, and he recently said he hoped the Solar Impulse achievements would prove broader use of sustainable energy is possible. "Renewable energy is no longer restricted to a small ecological niche," he said, insisting it now provided "an extraordinary development for industry, for job creation, for conquering new markets while protecting the environment at the same time." Piccard hopes the Solar Impulse 2 will help drive home this message across the world. "What we need to do is convince the political and the industrial world that this is the direction we need to go in," he said. Today, aviation burns the most carbon per passenger per kilometre of any mode of mass-transport and, despite efforts to limit emissions, remains the fastest growing anthropogenic source of greenhouse gases. The latest adventure will test not only the environment-friendly technology but also human endurance as pilots will fly solo across oceans with minimum sleep in a non-pressurised cockpit. Solar Impulse 2 is powered by more than 17,000 solar cells built into wings that, at 72 metres, are longer than those of a Boeing 747 and approaching those of an Airbus A380 superjumbo. In total the plane is to travel 35,000km and will cross two oceans. The circumnavigation, which is to take place in 12 steps, requires 25 days worth of flight time spread over five months. The stop-start journey harks back to the early days of intercontinental flight before enormous speeds and ranges were made achievable by jet engines. Qantas used to fly the Kangaroo Route from Sydney to London, hopping through Darwin, Singapore, Kolkata, Karachi, Cairo, and Tripoli. For the pilots, the entire journey will resemble circumnavigating the earth in a family car. The aircraft weighs the same as a Volvo sedan and goes at comparable speeds. SI2's top speed is 140km/h but the pilots will conserve battery power by limiting the plane to roughly half that. The cockpit is only slightly larger than an average car and must contain the life support systems, food, oxygen supplies and the reclining pilot's seat that triples as bed, chair and toilet. The pilots have undergone intensive training in preparation for the trip, including in yoga and self-hypnosis, allowing them to sleep for periods as short as 20 minutes but to wake up feeling refreshed, organisers said. "You have to make the cockpit like your own house … you go to the toilet, you wash yourself with wet wipes, you eat, you drink, you recline the seat to have some rest, you turn on the auto-pilot," Piccard said. "But meanwhile you still have to control the plane, stay in touch with air traffic controllers, navigate, (and) have the Monaco centre giving you the latest update with the weather," he added. Should a problem occur while sleeping, support staff based in Monaco can wake up the pilot. The two pilots "will be required to demonstrate extraordinary endurance under extreme conditions, living in a … non-pressurised cockpit, unheated, with external temperatures ranging from -40 to +40 degrees Celsius," organisers said. But as Piccard told the Sunday Morning Post before the mission began, the flight was not not about comfort, but about spreading the word about green tenchology. "Solar Impulse is not made to carry passengers, but to carry messages." Additional reporting by Associated Press, The Guardian

Solar flight explorer Bertrand Piccard is forever seeking a higher plane

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}As he attempts to make history again with the first round-the-world solar flight, Bertrand Piccard says he always seeks to realise his dreams

As he attempts to make history again with the first round-the-world solar flight, Bertrand Piccard says he always seeks to realise his dreams