Solar Impulse logbook

After the prototype lifted off the runway for the first time last December, 2010 will be an exciting and eventful year for the project. Alongside the first longer test flights, which are scheduled to lift the prototype higher into the air each time, the two pioneers, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg are planning to tackle the big challenge before the summer: The Solar Impulse prototype “HB-SIA” will become the first manned solar airplane to fly a complete day-night-day cycle.

Take a look at the current entries in the Solar Impulse Logbook and allow yourself to be inspired by a passion for innovation.

“Yesterday it was a dream, today it’s an airplane!” Bertrand Piccard was visibly moved when he, together with André Borschberg and their team, raised the curtain for the first time on the prototype “Solar Impulse HB-SIA”. More than 800 invited guests – including CEO and Chairman of the Management Board, Josef Ackermann, along with Prince Albert II of Monaco and the CEOs of Solvay and Omega – and thousands of internet users all over the world followed this historic moment live.

You missed it? Re-live the event’s highlights or find out more about “Solar Impulse HB-SIA” in the latest edition of the Solar Impulse Logbook.

 

“An idea and its realization can be worlds apart. Between the two lie huge amounts of energy, perseverance and hard work, and lots of challenges to be met.” Who would know better than André Borschberg, co-initiator and future pilot of the pioneering Solar Impulse project.

If visions are to become a reality, they need strong partners. Deutsche Bank, whose motto “A passion for innovation” coins their support of Solar Impulse as a Main Partner, also stands for innovation, sustainability and performance. Together we are a perfect team with the common goal of setting new standards.

• Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg at Abu Dhabi
• Tests successful: satisfaction and relief
• Genesis of the project, feasibility study
• Solar Impulse Backstage
• Vibration and load testing: why and how
• Configuration and modelling: chief engineer Marcus Basien
• Consuming while respecting the seasons

 

Solar Impulse’s prototype HB-SIA is on the fast track to take shape. By the end of November, the most significant part of the Solar Impulse's prototype has been delivered to the hangar in Dübendorf, Switzerland, after 2 years of intense "construction works": the main spar for the prototype’s 61meter-wing. Following assembly, the wing will soon undergo first tests.

• Solar Impulse is you!
• An idea born out of the desert
• The wings are here!
• Solar industry hit hard by financial crisis
• Reduce your energy consumption!
• Three days in China
• The on-board electronics
• Sébastien Demont, a six-star engineer
• Solar Impulse is proud to present its new official partners
• These past weeks at Dübendorf

 

A Passion for Innovation. A lot has been happening over the summer months in the Solar Impulse hangar in Dübendorf near Zurich. The fuselage of the prototype has passed its first static load tests and has been certified airworthy – confirming the choice of technologies and construction design which  until now never been used in the aviation industry.          

• Ultra-light at the service of Renewable Energy
• Let's not wait for the Crisis to happen!
• HB-SIA takes shape
• Peter Frei, from the Ariane 5 to Solar Impulse
• Solar Impulse at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Human Relations first and foremost
• Hirslanden Doctors care for Solar Impulse pilots
• EPFL: The race for solar hydrogen
• SQS supports Solar Impulse
• Elsewhere in the world...
  

 

Welcome aboard the new Solar Impulse Logbook. You can find out more about “A Passion for Innovation” in the current newsletter.

• An Airplane and a symbol
• Missions accomplished
• HB-SIA takes shape
• Trajectory
• Elsewhere in the world...
• In brief...