Massive experimental aircraft crashes off US coastline

The Solar Impulse 2, a long-range experimental aircraft, crashed in the Gulf of Mexico when it lost power during an unmanned test flight on May 4, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board said. There were no fatalities or injuries.

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Developed by entrepreneur André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, a descendant of famous European explorers who pioneered scientific advancements both in the air and under the sea, the sun-powered plane has undertaken several successful test flights since it was developed in 2015. The solar-powered aircraft circumnavigated the world in 2015 and 2016.

“The Solar Impulse team is saddened by the loss of an important technological flagship,” the company said in a statement released on Friday. Solar Impulse said the plane had been taken over by Skydweller Aero, an Oklahoma company developing autonomous aircraft, which heavily modified the Solar Impulse 2. The plane was lost during one of these unmanned flights.

The slender, fixed-wing single-engine aircraft is described by Piccard as symbolic — it’s not meant to carry passengers and instead represents a potential clean energy solution to fossil fuels, according to his website. Per the BBC, the solar-powered aircraft’s wingspan measures 72 meters, making it wider than a Boeing 747. 

It took an unconventional person to develop the equally unconventional aircraft. 

A descendant of Auguste Piccard, who invented the bathyscaphe, a deep-sea submersible, and Jacques Piccard, who was on the first mission to the Mariana Trench, Bertrand Piccard comes from a famous family that has set multiple world records. Auguste Piccard launched balloon flights in the stratosphere in 1931 and 1932 to study cosmic rays, collaborating with his son, Jacques, who became a prominent undersea explorer. 

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And, according to his website, Bertrand Piccard studied psychiatry and developed an interest in hypnotherapy during balloon flights, where he struggled to sleep and stay awake. A disciple of Ericksonian hypnosis, Piccard used this practice to train doctors and psychologists, as well as conquer the fear of the unknown, his website said. “By plunging into a state of trance, the pilot manages to dissociate his mind from his body and can thus remain focused on the onboard instruments even when he is resting,” Piccard’s bio reads. In 1999, Piccard traveled more than 29,000 miles in a balloon from the Swiss Alpine village of Chateau-d’Oex to Egypt, making it the first nonstop balloon flight around the world, according to the National Air and Space Museum.

NTSB officials are currently investigating the May 4 crash of the Solar Impulse 2.