Circling the globe in an aircraft that used no fuel would be enough for some to rest on their laurels, but the pilots of Solar Impulse 2 spoke of their new project. "An unmanned version of Solar Impulse," aviator and engineer Andre Borschberg said, when asked what groundbreaking mission the Swiss-based team was tackling next.
Borschberg and his partner Bertrand Piccard took turns captaining the solar powered plane on a record-shattering 43,000-kilometre journey across four continents, two oceans and three seas -- without using a single drop of fuel. That trip, completed in July, aimed to promote clean technologies through a spectacular physical feat that captured public attention the world over, Piccard said at a press conference in Geneva. Having showcased clean technologies, the Solar Impulse project now wants to provide a practical application for them, Piccard added.
The Swiss aviators said an unmanned version of their plane could hover at altitudes relatively low compared to other pilotless craft such as satellites -- roughly 20 kilometres -- for months, possibly bouncing wifi signals to poorly serviced areas or collecting rare agricultural data.
