Solar Impulse pilots: Solar-powered drones on the horizon

DAVOS, Switzerland — Solar technology that powered a plane on a record-breaking flight across the Pacific could revolutionize pilotless aircraft such as drones, Solar Impulse pilot Andre Borschberg said Wednesday.

Borschberg and pilot Bertrand Piccard set out  to circumnavigate the globe in a plane, called Solar Impulse, powered only by the sun, without fuel or polluting emissions. The first leg of the around-the-world flight began March 9 in Abu Dhabi when Borschberg flew 13 hours to land in Muscat, Oman. Their journey ended – temporarily because of a damaged battery, the pilots said – after Borschberg flew a record-breaking four-day, 21-hour and 52-minute flight from Japan to Hawaii.

As Borschberg and Piccard developed the plane, they also developed new materials, such as more efficient insulation and technology that could be used to power an unmanned aircraft using solar energy, Borschberg said in an interview with USA TODAY. Such pilotless aircraft, or drones, could in some cases do the work now done by satellites, such as communications and observations.

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"An unmanned version could fly six months, maybe one year at very high altitudes, above the airliners," he said.

The pilots, appearing at the World Economic Forum's annual gathering in the Swiss Alps of world leaders, CEOs and innovators, said they will resume their around-the-world journey in April.

While the flight has shown what is possible without fuel, Piccard said transitioning to a non-fuel society "will be demanding." Industries should begin that transformation by discarding 100-year old technologies such as internal combustion engines and developing technologies that use fuels in the most efficient ways, he said.

"Carbon dioxide is not the problem. It's the symptom," Piccard said. "The problem is outdated technology."

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Part of the transition will require energy producers and industries to change how they think about innovation, Borschberg said. When he and Piccard launched their solar plane idea, the aircraft company they approached to create the plane told them it couldn't be done. They had to shift their plan and eventually worked with a boat company.

Innovation, Piccard said, means leaving old ideas behind.

"Freedom is not when we can do everything," he said. "It is when we can think everything."