And why not...
fly around the world using hydrogen?

Last year in Brussels, you launched the manifesto “Europe 3.0: modernise to prosper”. What are these proposals and what is the current status?

What we are trying to highlight in this document is that environmental policy in Europe needs to be modernised in order to be more efficient. We need to move away from old infrastructure and old energy sources.

The idea came from the observation that many people do not understand environmental protection policies. Climate action, renewable energies... It is not just a question of the environment, it is also about Europe's competitiveness, its economic development, job creation, energy sovereignty...

I have become allergic to eco-anxiety, to rhetoric insisting that there is no future... What we need to do is restore hope, not blind hope, but hope through innovative actions, by questioning the systems we use...

We need to convince economic and political decision-makers. We need to show them that ecology does not mean sacrifice. We need to come up with a new narrative and then convince certain environmentalists that the goal is not economic decline, but a decline in waste, pollution, inefficiency... It is thanks to economic development that we will have money to distribute to education, health, social security and pension funds. Economic decline would be a social disaster, and it is not the richest who will suffer, but the poorest. Socially, this is unacceptable.

Ten years ago, you showed the world what could be achieved by flying around the globe powered only by solar energy, without fuel, at the controls of the beautiful Solar Impulse aircraft. Tomorrow, in 2028, you will be flying the Climate Impulse aircraft powered by green liquid hydrogen... Can you tell us a little about this next adventure?

It's my heartfelt response to the sceptics who would rather ban aviation than consider improving it. I want to show that we can be responsible and take matters into our own hands. When you think that aviation progressed from the Wright brothers' wooden and canvas aeroplane in 1903 to the Apollo XI moon landing in 1969, you realise that there is a wealth of innovation to be made in the world of aeronautics and that we must do everything we can now to demonstrate that exciting climate action is possible. It is possible to try out new systems. We can overcome defeatism by tackling the most difficult sector to decarbonise: aviation... The Climate Impulse project represents two years of construction. Testing will take place between 2025 and 2027. 2028 will mark the attempt to fly around the world in 9 days without stopovers, powered by green hydrogen...

What are the technological and aerodynamic characteristics of your Climate Impulse aircraft? This project might appear a bit crazy!

What's crazy is continuing to live in a world that burns 1 million tonnes of oil per hour, changes the climate and destroys biodiversity. That's the real madness... Trying to fly using hydrogen isn't easy. No one has done it to date, and this is only the beginning. It's an experiment, just like Solar Impulse was, and like the Brietling Orbiter project 25 years ago, my first round-the-world balloon flight with Brian Jones.

In this kind of pioneering project, you have to discover everything for yourself and put everything in place with your team. That's what's difficult. This time, tests will be carried out in the hope that they will validate our technical choices... You must never be overconfident; you have to remain humble and allow yourself to have doubts so that you can be open to all possible solutions... If you are too confident, you run the risk of going down the wrong path and not realising it...

In terms of technical characteristics, Climate Impulse is much more compact than Solar Impulse, twice as heavy and flies four times faster. It is therefore more operational. The Solar Impulse flight was a message, a symbol. I never said that all planes would fly on solar energy! My goal was to promote solar energy, renewable energies, clean technologies... Solar Impulse was more of an energy project than an aviation project!

Climate Impulse, on the other hand, is really about revolutionising aeronautics.

It is a carbon fibre aircraft built around two tanks. Each fuselage contains a hydrogen tank, a fuel cell and an electric motor. The hydrogen is cooled to -253°, very close to absolute zero. The tanks must be well insulated. A small amount of hydrogen evaporates and becomes gas, which passes through the fuel cells to produce electricity and power our engines.

Between the two fuselages is the cockpit with two seats for the pilots: Raphaël Dinelli, the composite materials engineer who is building the aircraft with his company 49 Sud, and myself. At the rear of the aircraft is a living area with a bunk bed for sleeping and a small kitchenette.

In 2028, will the Climate Impulse flight control room be in Monaco, as it was for Solar Impulse?

I can't tell you any more than that, except that we are currently discussing it...

In conclusion, Bertrand Piccard, could you tell us what your most memorable moment from your latest achievement was?

Flying with Solar Impulse was exceptional. No noise. No fuel. The downside was the ground work. Flight plans, overflight authorisations, paperwork... that was a real nightmare.

If there is one thing I will take away from this experience, it is the moment when, during the flight, I said to myself, “Right now, I am truly in the future. In an aeroplane that flies without fuel, without noise. I am in a science fiction film...” And, in fact, not at all. I was very much in the present, experiencing what technology makes possible today...

I concluded that it was the rest of the world that was living in the past. And I then understood that there was an incredible gap between what Solar Impulse embodied and the rest of the world...