Piccard, the initiator of the project Solar Impulse, will be welcomed by his colleague and fellow pilot André Borschberg, who flew from Abu Dhabi in March 2015 on the first leg of the historic round-the-world journey.
“Today we are living the final moments of a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, contributing to setting a new milestone in aviation – one centred not on speed or height but instead on exploring new clean and efficient technologies that can almost make it possible for the plane to fly with unlimited endurance, a week, a month; something that was never done,” said Borschberg as Piccard departed from Cairo.
Borschberg and Piccard, honourary president of the business association swisscleantech, took turns in the cockpit during the round-the-world trip. The last leg of this record-breaking journey could prove the most challenging of the previous 16 due to the high temperatures in the Middle East. Thermals and turbulence could force Piccard to use the oxygen mask for much of the flight.
But circumnavigating the globe without using a drop of fuel doesn’t mark the end of Piccard and Borschberg’s mission. “Unfortunately there are still so many people we have to motivate before having a world running on the same clean technologies,” said Piccard.