Solar frontier

The plane that’s powered by the sun is an intrepid adventure of the old-fashioned kind

Bertrand Piccard, the initiator, chairman and pilot of Solar Impulse, points Japan on the map at the Mission Control Center for the Solar Impulse flight in Monaco yesterday. Lionel Cironneau / AP Photo
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News that Solar Impulse has run into weather trouble as it tried to cross the Pacific Ocean has drawn attention all over again to the magic of an adventure, which combines that potent mix of danger, novelty and a challenge to human endurance. The plane, which took off from Abu Dhabi in March in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe using the energy of the sun, has captured the popular imagination in a way that’s unusual for an age when genuine firsts in exploration are hard to find. Man has thrown a girdle round the Earth many times over – by plane, bicycle and on foot. Most rivers and seas have been swum; the greatest mountain peaks climbed and sat nav makes clear that there are few known unknowns.

As we reported yesterday, this adventure is about man’s capacity to endure great discomfort – six days and six nights incarcerated in a tiny cockpit. Adventure and endurance have always been two sides of the same coin.