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Chairman of WGDO presented the certificate of World Green Design Contribution Award to Solar Impulse (Swiss)

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On November 4th, Mr. Andre Borschberg, co-founder and pilot of 'Solar Impulse' was given the World Green Design Contribution Award by Mr Shi Dinghuan the Chairman of World Green Design Forum and Jean-Jacques De Dardel the Ambassador of Switzerland in China.


Solar Impulse has won the award in the World Green Design Forum Freiburg Summit 2014 on Oct 20th. Solar Impulse is a unique adventure aiming to put emotion back into the heart of scientific exploration. Solar Impulse is also an airborne laboratory making way for innovative technological solutions capable of meeting today’s challenges head on. And it is a vision which drives each one of us to become a pioneer on a day-to-day basis.

This revolutionary single-seater aircraft made of carbon fiber has a 72 meter wingspan (larger than that of the Boeing 747-8I) for a weight of just 2,300 Kg, equivalent to that of a car. The 17,000 solar cells built into the wing supply four electric motors (17.5 CV each) with renewable energy. During the day, the solar cells recharge lithium batteries weighing 633 Kg (2077 lbs.) which allow the aircraft to fly at night and therefore to have virtually unlimited autonomy.



Solar Impulse is the product of an alliance between two men to fulfill a project deemed impossible by industry experts. While Bertrand Piccard, a psychiatrist and explorer, sourced partners to finance the project and promoted the cause for clean technologies (subsequently endorsed by many political authorities), engineer and entrepreneur André Borschberg brought together and led a technical team of 80. It has taken 12 years of calculations, simulations, construction and testing to arrive at today’s launch of Solar Impulse 2 – the most revolutionary aircraft of out of time, set to fly around the world.



“A vision counts for nothing unless it is backed up by action. With 8 world records for Solar Impulse 1, the first solar aircraft capable of flying during the night, crossing two continents and flying over the United States, we have shown that clean technologies and renewable energies can accomplish the impossible,” said a delighted Bertrand Piccard, founder and Chairman of Solar Impulse.

To complete the round-the-world flight, Solar Impulse 2 will have to accomplish what no other aircraft has achieved before: flying without fuel with only one pilot for 5 consecutive days and nights over oceans from one continent to another. This is the challenge for which the aircraft has been built. The single-seater solar aircraft has a huge wingspan of 72 meters (236 ft) for its weight of just 2,300 Kg (5’000 lbs.), producing an aerodynamic performance and energy efficiency greater than anything to date. There is a 3.8 m3 cockpit, every detail of which has been designed for a pilot to live there for a week. However, for the sake of maximum energy efficiency, the cabin is not pressurized or heated – a further endurance challenge for the pilot.