If You Are Depressed by the Cesspool Quality of America’s Political Leadership — Get a Boost from Switzerland’s Solar Powered Airplane Flight across the United States — the Solar Impulse Across America Project

05 May 2013

Some endeavors combine cutting edge technological competence with aesthetic grace

Switzerland’s Solar Impulse is one.

Yesterday, the Solar Impulse completed the first leg of its solar powered flight across the United States, leaving San Francisco and landing in Phoenix.

You can see videos of the start and end of the flight, here.

If sight of this solar-powered plane in motion doesn’t inspire you, “your soul is dead,” as my favorite physics professor, Ernie Rost (now deceased), used to tell us.

With the flight, a simple message that shames U.S. leadership

From the Solar Impulse website:

With each of their great "firsts", the adventurers of the last century constantly pushed back the limits of the impossible.

Today, the drive to make new discoveries must go on, with the aim of improving the quality of life on our planet.

By writing the next pages in aviation history with solar energy, and voyaging around the world without fuel or pollution, Solar Impulse's ambition is for the world of exploration and innovation to contribute to the cause of renewable energies, to demonstrate the importance of clean technologies for sustainable development; and to place dreams and emotions back at the heart of scientific adventure.

By going beyond the question of energy, Solar Impulse would also like to encourage each and every one of us to become pioneers in our own lives, in our ways of thinking and behaving.

When was the last time that you a prominent American political leader say the same, mean it, and really push to make it happen, despite unfavorable politics?

Instead, our future has been left to private individuals, like the admirable Elon Musk, who use their genius to push our increasingly complacent nation into the future. He and they could use some help.

Solar Impulse’s two prime movers — Elon Musk-like people with less money

From the project’s website:

Two men, both pioneers and innovators, both pilots, are driving force behind Solar Impulse.

Bertrand Piccard, psychiatrist and aeronaut, who made the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight, is the initiator and chairman.

André Borschberg, an engineer and graduate in management science, a fighter pilot and a professional airplane and helicopter pilot, is the CEO.

The former’s avant-gardist vision and the latter’s entrepreneurial and managerial experience are an ideal combination.

Bertrand Piccard’s dad was underwater ocean explorer, Jacques Piccard. And his granddad, Auguste Piccard, was a physicist, inventor, and balloonist. André Borschberg was a Swiss Air Force fighter pilot, with expertise in mechanical engineering and thermodynamics.

Swiss flag in American skies

One of the world’s less populous nations (ranked 96^th in population) is making a quiet statement about leadership — without using military force or fist-sized economic clout:

Today, in the quaint city of Bern, which also happens to be Switzerland’s capital, the Swiss Federal Council reinforced its support of the Solar Impulse project.

Thanks to this, Solar Impulse will continue to benefit from the hangars in Dübendorf (where HB-SIB [the second version of the plane] is being built) and Payerne (where HB-SIA [the current version of the plane] is currently housed and where the test flights of HB-SIB will occur).

In the meantime, Switzerland’s affiliation to the project provides the ideal platform to showcase the Helvetian innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.

[T]he project started thanks to a feasibility study done by the Swiss Polytechnic University in Lausanne (EPFL) while the aircraft was built using a number of materials researched, tested and manufactured within the Confederation’s borders.

Four corporate partners

The project’s four corporate sponsors are:

the chemical group, Solvay

timing and measurement manufacturer, Omega

elevator and escalator manufacturer, Schindler

and

Deutsche Bank

I doubt that any of these entities expects a near-term payout from this farsighted project.

The moral? — In the United States, politicians are increasingly ill-suited to looking beyond their immediate self-interest — which bodes poorly for our national direction

Fortunately, some people and some nations refuse to let these petty-minded beings squash the Future’s hold on committed imaginations.

PeteFree.com

If You Are Depressed by the Cesspool Quality of America’s Political Leadership — Get a Boost from Switzerland’s Solar Powered Airplane Flight across the United States — the Solar Impulse Across America Project