From Tulsa to Dayton

Monday 23rd May 2016

Solar Impulse landed on May 22nd in Dayton, Ohio

André Borschberg landed on May 22nd in Dayton, Ohio at 01:56 UTC after a 16h34m flight from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

This 12th flight of the first round-the-world solar flight took Si2 and André to max altitude 6401m and produced 460kWh.

Dayton is the hometown of Wilbur and Orville Wright. For André this flight is a tribute to pioneering spirit, 113 years after the two brothers succeeded in flying the first power-driven aircraft heavier than air.

"Dayton the city where the wright bothers lived and developed all their ideas and first airplanes: most engineers at that time - instead of helping them - used theories to try to prove them wrong. Wilbur and Orville kept going into the unknown, testing their aircrafts each year in Kitty Hawk in South Carolina. They believed in their vision, were not afraid to fail, and finally made the impossible... possible. That’s what the aviation industry told Bertrand and I 13 years ago. What it meant for us was that we had to use and develop other technologies, set up a team with different skills with the right mindset" André Borschberg

To develop their wing wrapping concept, the two inventors used their intuition and observation of nature to think out of the box. They defied current knowledge at a time where all experts said it would be impossible. When in 1903, their achievement marked the beginning of modern aviation, they did not suspect that a century later, two pioneers would follow in their footsteps, rejecting all dogmas to fly an airplane around the world without a drop of fuel.

"When I was young, I have been inspired by the ones who got involved in both technology and human exploration: Specially the wright brothers who invented the powered airplane and learned how to fly it. They understood the notion of lift and drag, developed a wind tunnel at home where they tested different wing profile. They understood the question of balance of an airplane: center of gravity versus center of lift. They understood the need to have flight controls and developed a first solution through wing wrapping!" André Borschberg

This flight reunites explorers who defied the impossible to give the world hope, audacious men who believed in their dream enough to make it a reality.

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