PBS will air a two-hour special about the round-the-world flight of Solar Impulse, premiering Wednesday, Jan. 31. The documentary, “The Impossible Flight,” will follow the quest undertaken by Bertrand Piccard and Andr’s Borschberg as they tackle huge challenges, both technical and personal, in their mission to build the solar-powered airplane and fly it around the world. After years of development, the flight launched from Abu Dhabi, then landed back there more than a year later. Along the way, the pilots and crew faced a multitude of challenges, from weather to complex repairs to pilot exhaustion to fundraising.
The goal of the project was to deliver a message: If renewable energy can work for a fragile airplane, it can help inspire humanity to develop new technologies that will avoid carbon pollution.AVweb chronicled this effort from the first announcement, in 2003, all the way through to the final landing at Abu Dhabi, 13 years later. The Solar Impulse Foundation now has launched the second phase of its action: selecting 1,000 solutions, by the end of this year, that can protect the environment in a profitable way. Solar Impulse will bring those ideas to decision-makers to encourage them to adopt more ambitious environmental targets and energy policies.
