Solar Flight Pioneer Bertrand Piccard: 'We Have the Technology to End Our Dependence on Fossil Fuels'

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SPIEGEL ONLINE: The airline industry has a particularly big problem when it comes to the environment. Do industry leaders understand that their survival is at stake?

Piccard: They understand the magnitude of the problem. But they have no idea what to do about it. When oil prices go up, they will be in big trouble. You need to reduce the weight of planes; you need to have more direct routes; you need to make continuous descent approaches, which reduce fuel consumption. Everybody has known this for years. But not much has happened.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your plane Solar Impulse will fly only 70 kilometers per hour (43 miles per hour) on average. Could slower flying speeds also save fuel for commercial airliners?

Piccard: In principle, yes. It is something of a paradox. Everybody wants to fly as fast as possible. But should oil prices rise above $200 (€166) per barrel, you will eventually have to reduce speed.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Had you used fuel cells for your plane, you would surely have aided the airline industry more than you have. In that scenario, passengers might have been able to fly with the technology one day -- in contrast to the solar plane that you have built.

Piccard: I did think about fuel cells in the beginning. But solar cells are more consistent with our goals. We want to change people's behavior. We don't want to change the airline industry.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Solar Impulse has made five test flights so far. Why have you not flown a single one of them?

Piccard: Our German test pilot Markus Scherdel is much better trained for the job. He is both a pilot and an engineer; as such, he helps to make the plane better. Flying stability has improved a lot. My associate André Borschberg has already taken his first flight. And in the next two or three weeks, I plan to enter the cockpit myself.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you planning on making the first night flight, when your plane will have to use energy stored up during daylight hours?

Piccard: Either André Borschberg or myself will do it. We will decide at the last minute. We plan to start sometime around June 21. And if it doesn't work the first time, we will just have to keep trying. We can't fly around the world if the plane does not stay in the air at night. It's as simple as that.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: If everything goes well, you plan to fly around the world in 2013. Why are you planning on making five stops on the way?

Piccard: There is only room for one pilot. You are totally on your own in the cockpit. And nobody can stay awake for 20 days in a row. After five days of travelling alone, things get a bit dangerous. That's when we want to change pilots.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you plan to keep alert during the flight?

Piccard: I will use meditation and self-hypnosis. And apart from that, there will be an autopilot that permits sleeping, at least for short periods of time.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: There will not even be room for a toilet in the small cabin. How will you solve that problem?

Piccard: With plastic bags.

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• Part 1: 'We Have the Technology to End Our Dependence on Fossil Fuels'
• Part 2: 'You Are Totally on Your Own in the Cockpit'