In a workshop on France’s Atlantic coast, aviation pioneer Bertrand Piccard and his partners are feverishly preparing for a flight that could completely change the course of aviation.
When Piccard led a high-profile flight around the world in a solar-powered plane a decade ago, it drew attention to the problem of climate change but did not promise a revolutionary change in air travel.
Now the 66-year-old Swiss adventurer, the creator of Solar Impulse, is aiming higher, hoping to move to more environmentally friendly commercial flights than today’s fossil-fueled planes – this time using super-cold liquid hydrogen.
Climate Impulse is a project that began last February and aims to fly a two-seater plane non-stop around the globe in nine days on so-called “green” hydrogen.
This is hydrogen, which is extracted from water molecules using renewable electricity through a process called electrolysis.
The Climate Impulse team, which includes sponsors Airbus and the Syensqo science incubator founded by Belgian pharmaceutical company Solvay, presented its first year of work to reporters this week in Les Sables-d’Olonne, a seaside town better known as the site of the Vendee Globe sailing regatta.
When will Climate Impulse go live?
The first test flights are scheduled for next year, but the grueling round-the-world journey is scheduled for 2028. Made of lightweight composite materials, the plane relies on several unproven innovations and is not reliable.
Piccard says a major aircraft manufacturer would not take the risk of producing a prototype like Climate Impulse if it fails.
“My job is to be a pioneer,” he said in an interview. “We have to show that it’s possible. “We have to show that it’s possible, then it will be a big incentive for others to continue.”
Even if the project is successful, experts say that commercial flights on a “green” hydrogen engine will be decades at best. The project has attracted tens of millions of euros in investment, and the team of dozens of employees is constantly growing.
According to Rafael Dinelli, an engineer and Climate Impulse co-pilot, the solar-powered plane was a technological breakthrough in 2015, but it was impossible to scale. Limited in its range, the plane had to make more than a dozen stops during its round-the-world trip.
Climate Impulse is supposed to take off unassisted, fly about 40,000 km (about 25,000 miles) around the Earth along the equator and return to its launch site without refueling in the air – and at all non-stop.
How does Climate Impulse fly?
Controlled release of liquid hydrogen from ultra-insulated tanks under the plane’s wings generates energy that seeps into the fuel cell membrane that powers the plane.
“The plane has a wingspan like an Airbus 320: 34 meters (about 110 feet). It weighs 5.5 tons and flies at 180 kilometers per hour – that’s 100 knots at 10,000 feet (3,000 meters),” Piccard said Thursday.
One goal, he said, is to extract energy from the “turbulent part” of the atmosphere, which airlines could also use one day to save fuel.
Since it’s hydrogen, the only source of emissions will be water vapor. However, outside experts caution that the environmental impact of such water vapor remains unknown in the real world or in a large-scale scenario.
