Gadgetory

everybody my name is Stephen Beecham i'm here with cnet com and we're going to do a live we're going to attempt a live in flight interview with captain of the Solar Impulse 2 solar-powered airplane bertrand piccard he's somewhere over the desert in the Middle East right now and we're going to try to connect with him via satellite and I'm going to do an interview live over Facebook live stream in YouTube with him with a long delay so it's going to be a little difficult but just stand by this is from solar impulse calm there's their website this is a live stream they're putting out right now he's on the last leg of his trip around the world on a solar-powered airplane so stay tuned we're gonna get this going here so hang in there we'll we'll be right back with you guys shortly mr. Picard my name is Steven Beecham in San Francisco with cnet com thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us how are you doing yes an old Steven yes I hear you well now well things are going smoothly this morning with the sunrise over the desert of stamped of Saudi Arabia that the night was really bumpy it was turbulent you know the heats there are a lot of servos of they remade during the night so it was that the smoothest night I could have I really have to fight on my flight controls the area yesterday has been gorgeous with a desert of egypt the crossing of the Red Sea arrival of the mountains of Saudi it's a beautiful flight i have to say we're able to get any rest last night last night or no Lester this morning a little bit just before sunrise I had the the first night of the your day of the horizon and the mirror I could make a few naps but you know at the end up that's here to sleep and i'm here to fly the plane i'm here to bring it to Abu Dhabi so if I can't sleep of course I I'm in a better shape that it's easier that's the goal now is really to finish successfully the last leg of the round-the-world solo flight so set the scene for us everyone that's watching at home where are you right now and what is your elevation and what is your airspeed just so we get a sense of what's going on yes so I am in the middle of Saudi Arabia over a place which is just a desert of Sam it's completely flat they are doing of orange it's I'm flying a 8003 it slow because you don't during the night I fly lower in order to save energy and when the Sun comes I starts to do climb again and I'm flying at the speed of 29 dots which is maybe slow for an airplane but you know the sailplane is very strange I mean the first of a kind it's like slowly has a huge wingspan it is sensitive to turbulence but the way it is built allows it to fly day and night without fuel so I spent the night of the batteries that were charged yesterday during the day flight and the now I'm starting to charge the batteries again for the next day for the next night so it's a they could you era in aviation because of course it's the beginning it's difficult it's challenging there is go hedgehog nobody explained us how to do it we we had to invent something completely new so you guys have already set the bench for longest flight it was five days in the solar and solar-powered plane correct yes exactly that was the flight of all the way from Nagoya due to Hawaii and what is great is to see that this airplane in several days of all right now we have when I could be at nap take it was three days of 39 we had several slides of two days and two nights with all the way so you see you can fly much longer because it has no fuel because we found another way to do but before all the airplanes would be sonar of course there will be a lot of diamond I think the first step fluoridation will be to become electric because electric motors have much better efficiency of course batteries are heavier than fuel but i bet that in 10 years time you will have electric airplane flying with 50 people on board for sure to give your whole slide and this will happen in the next 10 years so maybe that fully solar but fully electric clogged up degraded of the airport before taking us which has a lot of advantages of thousands of evolution yeah I feel like there's a renaissance and solar powered planes right now I mean Facebook Mark Zuckerberg just launched their playing the Aquila plane last are in June but they just released a video of it last week did you did you get a chance to check that out and what are your you know one of your remarks regarding that yes of course I saw it that I have to say that the solar drawn or Facebook is beautiful it is such a fantastic shape and their plane that this beautiful always slides well you know melaku well it reminds me you know 17 years ago it was just off to my booth flies around the world when I started to speak of an airplane flying around the world without fuel everybody thought I was completely crazy and now things start to happen which is good that's the role of pioneering to open the way and they give two ways to people to try this is what is missing in our world today people are stuck with all devices all the sources of energy and they think they will be able to live forever with it but it's wrong it's completely wrong the world is going in the wrong direction we are destroying the planet were polluting the environment were depleting the natural resources were poisoning the lungs of the children who are breathing the air that we have an absolutely we must do differently I know I know how you feel like when I when I put gasoline in my car I feel like this is archaic like why am I still putting fossil my car but you know that's that's the way life is right now but um you you've been working on this project since 1999 correct how does it feel to be you're just hours away from finishing your trip around the world how does it feel to be almost done with with this major accomplishment nopee others if I think about it they become too much emotional so when I took off yesterday morning in Egypt I I i was thinking I'm doing this right as a pilot not as the shader of the project I'm doing it as a pilot to bring the plane to Abu Dhabi to I well to you enjoy the flight also to give interviews to speak about the technologies but I try not still remember that it's the last slide otherwise i will have tears in my eyes and my voice will break that's wait for up with a bit we celebrate and you know he is still the day and the night to go a challenging it's that's because it's the last flight that with easy I remains very difficult specially over deserts where you have fur balls where you have proven answers I can even below I have to focus on the task yeah so during this whole journey which has been you know the last year more than a year of your life just going around the world not not even counting building the plane but what was the most memorable experience for you so far on this trip I think they were two things that were fantastic what was crossing the Atlantic in the the solar-powered airplane because I bet Charles bitburg when I was a child I talk to happen that's flying over the Atlantic for the first time with a solar-powered airplane that was great because Charles did Bergen go to Paris to open the way to commercial air transport them my goal was to use the symbol of the Atlantic to open the way too much more implementation of kin technologies so that was really a highlight for me and another highlight of course was where I could speak live in to ban ki-moon the secretary-general of the United Nations from the cockpit of solo cause when I was about the the Pacific speaking to the detonation and really demonstrate that all these new technologies they are material they can be used everywhere not just for airplane that they can be used to replace all the old systems that are polluting and if you replace all that you you make profit to create jobs you'd approve the industry so you see on what i tol ban ki-moon is that now there is no need to be only ecological you can just be logical using the clean technologies if this will protect the environment also what is next for the Solar Impulse team what are you guys what is next after you guys accomplished your goal what are you guys planning next we have a user experience in our technical team for solar power plants with high payload and you know there is a huge development that direction to replace satellite for observation for internet and so on and that we are working of that and all day boksburg my partner who is leading the technical team is very keen to develop that part i would like to also develop electric airplanes bo transpose or four passengers because i think it's really worth it and they're what we will do of course now is to develop the International Committee for clean technologies like a World Council of technologies that I announce when I was flying above the Atlantic and this is a way to give a cupboard voice more power to the Association institution organization and they are working in technologies and renewable energy because a they are not organized together as a community and we need is to be able to advise the gallant dance and to bring back from the energy policy so this is really what we call now beyond the solar impulse Solar Impulse allows us to do that and now we're going to do it that's fantastic I'm really happy to hear everything is going so well thank you so much for your time bertrand piccard does pilot of the Solar Impulse he's above he's over Saudi Arabia now flying live this is all happening live is it okay if I call you Captain Picard cuz I think that's a thing right yes but you know that God could because it's all Trek was named after the twin brother of my grandfather no way ok the first stratospheric fly yeah he made the first photospheric like the balloon in the US and the creator of Star Trek to keep as an inspiration for Captain Picard or it's really funny that's fantastic well thank you so much for your time and good luck I'm I'm very excited for you guys it's gonna be really cool to see you guys land yes thank you very much for your support advisor all right have a go on all right guys that was Captain Picard in the solar in place too and he's taken off he's flying off into the desert check out all of our coverage at cnet com there we produce a lot of videos about the Solar Impulse in the Facebook playing the Aquila so check out all of our coverage at cnet com and we'll check you out next time