Symbolic Stopover Pay Homage To Aviation Pioneers

Solar Impulse landed at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport on Tuesday, June 4th. The completion of the third leg of the 2013 Across America mission also inaugurates the use of the inflatable mobile hangar, deployed for the first time during a mission. Landing in St. Louis brings Swiss pioneers Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, a step closer to accomplishing the coast-to-coast crossing of the USA, with New York City as final destination.

This was Bertrand Piccard’s longest flight in the single-seat cockpit to date. The flight originated Monday, June 3rd from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport when Piccard took off at 04:06 a.m. CDT (Texas time). After 21 hours and 21 minutes, he landed the Solar Impulse prototype at 01:28 a.m. CDT Tuesday, June 4th at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

While Solar Impulse was on its way from Dallas to St. Louis, the rest of the Solar Impulse team had only a few hours to deploy the inflatable mobile hangar where the aircraft will be housed upon landing. Operating in real time mission conditions was a first for the project and an important milestone. The revolutionary structure has been conceived and designed by Solar Impulse for the around-the-world mission in 2015, but will now provide a shelter after last weekend’s storm that severely damaged the hangar reserved for Solar Impulse at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

“We brought the inflatable hangar to the USA for testing purposes and in fact it allowed the mission to stay on schedule. This exercise is now a proof of concept: rather than taking the airplane to a hangar, we have taken the hangar to the airplane,” said André Borschberg, Co-founder, CEO and pilot of Solar Impulse.

The choice of St. Louis as the Solar Impulse Midwest stop was no coincidence. The city has played a significant role in the history of U.S. aviation back in the days when Charles Lindbergh was a chief pilot for the Chicago to St. Louis U.S. Mail Route. The city’s business leaders, including the namesake of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, Albert Bond Lambert, supported Lindbergh in his bid to make the first trans-Atlantic flight between New York and Paris in 1927 in the “Spirit of St. Louis.”

“It was particularly important for me to come to St. Louis because I was so inspired when I met Charles Lindbergh at Cape Canaveral during a launch of the Apollo when I was eleven years old. I’m truly moved to be able to land here today with Solar Impulse,” said Bertrand Piccard, Initiator, Chairman and pilot of Solar Impulse shortly after landing.

Solar Impulse wants to inspire everyone to become pioneers in their everyday lives. Its latest initiative, Clean Generation, is creating a global movement to promote the use of clean technologies and is already rallying thousands of people to support the adoption of sustainable energy solutions. The names of those who join this movement are carried on a USB key and transported in the cockpit across America as virtual passengers. Additionally, a flag displaying the Clean Generation slogan are carried by the pilots and handed over to civic leaders at each stop. The first two flags were handed over to the Governor of Arizona and Texas Secretary of State

After St. Louis, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will continue to alternately pilot the solar airplane to reach Washington, D.C. and New York.

(Image provided by Solar Impulse)

FMI: www.solarimpulse.com