Payerne, Switzerland. 2010.6.5 - For 4 hours and 50 minutes, at a maximal altitude of 3657 meters, in test flight #8, Solar Impulse flew higher and for longer, than ever before.
 

 
In its eighth flight, the HB-SIA operated entirely energy-positive for the first time. Claude Nicollier, director flight testing, stated "We came back with significant more power than we took off with." When HB-SIA produces more energy than its' four motors consume, it charges the planes batteries, and makes possible the first night flight of Solar Impulse.
 
However, upon landing, test pilot Marcus Schwerdel remarked "This was the most difficult landing I've done with this machine so far." Due to its dimensions and its low weight, the HB-SIA is very sensitive to winds or thermals and the pilot has to stay highly very concentrated.
 
In a world depending on fossil energies, the Solar Impulse project is developing an airplane able to take off and fly autonomously, around the world, day and night, propelled (without fuel or pollution), by solar energy.
 
This ambitious project is being supported by the global brands Solvay, Omega and Deutsche Bank and thousands of supporters who are providing financial and promotional backing. Albert II of Monaco, Al Gore and Paolo Coelho are all supporters of the ground-breaking Solar Impulse project. Each of them is sponsoring a solar cell on the wing of the aircraft. And just like them, for a modest contribution, you too can participate in this unique adventure!
 
The driving force behind Solar Impulse is a pair of pilots, pioneers and innovators, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. Piccard, psychatrist and aeronaut, who made the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight, is the initiator and chairman. Borschberg, an engineer and graduate in management science, a fighter pilot and a professional airplane and helicopter pilot, is the CEO.
 
These two men lead a multi-disciplinary team of more than 50 specialists from six countries, based in Dübendorf and Lausanne. This team, assisted by a hundred advisers, is working on the construction of the first prototype. The disciplines whih must be successfully synthesied include leading-edge construction techniques, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, project & systems management, computer simulation, composite materials, renewable energy, (photovoltaic cells to high-performance engine batteries), flight dynamics, mechanical engineering, air traffic control, PR and finance.
 
Construction of the first prototype, the HB-SIA, began in June 2007, with the objective of completing the first night flight in 2010. Another plane will then be developed to attempt to fly several 24-hour cycles consecutively, leading to the first trans-Atlantic flight from 2012, and then the round-the-world flight.
 
As first Main Partner, Solvay is supporting the project financially and with innovative and technological solutions, expertise, forecasting and simulatiion of materials behavior in extreme environments. Over 6 000 parts in the Solar Impulse contain Solvay materials from Solvay Advanced Polymers, Solvay Solexis and Solvay Fluor, especially Ultra high performance polymers.
 
Solvay is an international industrial Group active in chemistry. It offers a broad range of products and solutions that contribute to improving quality of life. The Group is headquartered in Brussels and employs more than 19.000 people in 50 countries. In 2009, its consolidated sales amounted to EUR 8.5 billion. In 2010 the company was acquired by global pharmaceutical brand Abbott.
 
In Australia, Digital Tsunami has delivered online and offline marketing collaterals for Abbott and Solvay. First was the localised website for Solvay Pharmaceuticals, then an online ordering system for Influvac, and interactive CD-ROMs for Creon.
 
Digital Tsunami was founded in Hong Kong in 1996 and Essential, (its' film production division, founded in 1980), has delivered solutions to multinational corporations and global brands including; Citizen, Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Merck and NEC.
 
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