JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015 - 3

No limit, for composites

52nd year

President and CEO/Publisher:
Frédérique Mutel
mutel@jeccomposites.com

Media director & Editor-in-chief:

Conference & Technical editor:
Franck Glowacz
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 04
glowacz@jeccomposites.com

Writer, Awards & Conference manager:
Cécile Lagoutte
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15.13
lagoutte@jeccomposites.com

Deputy-editor & Graphic designer:
Antoine Morel
morel@jeccomposites.com

Graphic designer:
Adèle Laparra
laparra@jeccomposites.com

Technical & Business manager:
Thierry Saint-Martin
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 73
saintmartin@jeccomposites.com

Technical & Business developer:
Kim -Oanh Truong
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 74
kim@jeccomposites.com

Marketing/Circulation:
presse@jeccomposites.com
Sandrine Dumarquez
dumarquez@jeccomposites.com

Subscriptions:
www.jeccomposites.com/magazine-subscription/

Printing: Chirat, Saint-Just-la-Pendue (42), France
Legal registration:
ISSN 1639-965X
Dépôt légal : 2eme trimestre 2015

Photos & illustrations:
All right reserved, unless mentionned.

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Total Average
Qualified Circulation:

36,509 copies
BPA January - June statement 2014.
Print circulation of 22,331 and electronic
circulation of 14,178.

Frédéric Reux

Editor-in-chief
reux@jeccomposites.com

As we write these lines, Bertrand Piccard
and André Borschberg have just begun
their round-the-world voyage aboard a
solar-powered aircraft, the Solar Impulse,
an aircraft powered solely by renewable
energies and a true symbol in this age of
global warming.
The mere fact of imagining such an adventure is the stuff of a waking dream. Yet from
dream to reality is but one small step, or
at least it is for those with enough determination to move mountains! That said,
Bertrand Piccard has already won his spurs,
in particular with the world's first circumnavigation of the globe by hot-air balloon, in
1999, under his belt.
The HB-SIB, official name of Solar Impulse,
took off from Abu Dhabi on 9 March for a
historic round-the-world trip of 35,000 km
in 12 legs, flying at speeds of between 50
and 100 km/h. The scheduled flight time is
25 days. The aircraft is flown at a maximum
altitude of 8500 m by each of these modernday adventurers in turn. The aircraft first set
a course for Oman then flew on toward the
Indian towns of Ahmedabad and Varanasi. The next stops will be Mandalay in
Burma, Chongqing and Nanjing in China,
followed by a Pacific crossing in two legs,
with a stopover in Hawaii. The flight will
then continue on to the United States, with
stopovers in Phoenix and New York. From
there, the aircraft's route will take it across
the Atlantic to arrive at Southern Europe
or North Africa, for a final stopover before
returning to Abu Dhabi in late July/early
August. An impressive feat, particularly with
an 8500-km leg over the Pacific.
Solar Impulse is an aircraft of extraordinary
proportions: 72.30 m wingspan; 22.40 m in
length; weighing in at a mere 2300 kg - it is
a showcase of technology. The four electric

motors are powered by more than 17,000
solar cells on the wings, covering an area
of some 200 m². The upper wing surface is
covered by a skin of encapsulated solar cells
and the lower surface by a high-strength,
flexible skin. Lithium batteries store the
energy.
Staying as light as possible was a constant
concern, and mobilised significant
resources. To design the structure, the Solar
Impulse team called upon the Swiss company, Decision SA, famous for building the
Alinghi catamarans for the America's Cup.
140 carbon-fibre ribs spaced at 50 cm intervals give the wing its aerodynamic crosssection, and also maintain its rigidity. All
this runs along a carbon central spar with a
rectangular cross-section - the backbone of
the wing, if you will. To keep the weight of
all these elements to a minimum, Decision
worked with thin preimpregnated unidirectional tapes made by NTPT, which offered
a better fibre wet-out than conventional
prepreg material. Ultimately, the Ecublensbased company manufactured 83% of the
skeleton parts and developed carbon fibre
tapes weighing only 25 g/m2, compared to
80 g/m2 for an ordinary sheet of paper.
No fewer than 80 engineers and technicians
worked on the project over four years, to
which should be added considerable human
resources from the project's partners, called
in to provide their technical know-how. This
represents a fine example of a collaborative
project, led by the charismatic Bertrand
Piccard, who was able to mobilise some
very different yet complementary partners.
This serves as yet another symbol for the
composites industry, in which projects are
becoming increasingly collaborative if they
are ever to come to fruition.

No96 April 2015 /

Frédéric Reux
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 11
reux@jeccomposites.com

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015