For Bertrand Piccard, the idea to build a solar-powered plane capable of circumnavigating the globe was hatched while running on empty. In March 1999, Piccard was on the final leg of an around-the-world journey by hot air balloon—the first-ever nonstop flight of its kind—when his Breitling Orbiter 3 swept low over the Egyptian desert and skidded to a halt on the corrugated plains. As Piccard stepped out onto the hot sand, he checked the fuel tanks mounted on his gondola and got a shock that became a defining moment. “We had left Switzerland with four tons of propane,” he remembers. “We only had 40 kilos left! We almost didn’t make it. I promised myself that next time I would fly around the world without using any fuel at all.” Read more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323550604578410800434511668.html#ixzz2RhYGHnOD
Darko Kapelina believes that this April 25, 2013 Wall Street Journal article about circumnavigating the globe in an airplane powered by only solar energy proves that circumnavigating the globe is also possible with regenerative sailing. Kapelina is interested in ideas relating to clean regenerative sailing.
darkokapelina 