AHMEDABAD: Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, two Swiss pilots who are attempting to fly around the-world in a solar-powered plane, want 1.2 billion Indians to support their campaign for use of renewable energy for protecting the global environment.
Piccard, who piloted the Muscat-Ahmedabad leg of the Solar Impulse flight last night, said, "Most important thing for us is that we could put this badge on. We could put India on our sleeves."
A psychiatrist by training, Piccard said a lot of hard work from innovation to technology to engineering and seeking government permissions in many countries has gone into the Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) project.
The wings of the Solar Impulse 2 are covered by more than 17,000 solar cells that recharge the plane's batteries. It flies ideally at around 25 knots, or 45 kph (28 mph).
It will next fly to Varanasi and is then slated to make 12 stops during its 35,000-kilometer journey, including in China and Myanmar, before it crosses over the Pacific Ocean.
"We can hardly believe that we are on our way," he said after the solar-powered plane made successful flight from Abu Dhabi to Ahmedabad via Muscat.
He said the world was faced with new challenges like medical research, fighting poverty, protection of environment, better governance and human rights and the Si2 flight was about spreading the awareness about these issues.
He hoped to garner support from Indian population for their campaign 'Future is Clean'. "We have launched a campaign on our website. We can have 1.2 billion signatures from India," he said.
"When we go to UN conferences and other forums, we want to tell them that climate change is not an expensive problem but an opportunity to put new technologies (renewable energy technologies) on the market," Piccard, a third generation innovator, said.
Piccard said there were many prominent persons who supported the campaign of Solar Impulse team but it was important that more and more people announce their support for this cause.
Borschberg, an Engineer by training and a military pilot by hobby, said using renewable energy, impossible things can be achieved.
"This is what we want to show," Broschberg, who flew the maiden leg of the flight from Abu Dhabi to Muscat, said.
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