Great team spirit happening! The only causality thus far is the coffee machine, which has been working non-stop and could really use a 100'000 km check up!

A last burst of energy and inspiration to share with you the last subject on my list I absolutely need to learn a little "endurance" from André.

One of all the many aspects in keeping André sustainable for so long is the cockpit. This week we have been testing a prototype cockpit for the 2^nd airplane. Compared to the 1^st cockpit in HB SIA, this is definitely upgrade from economy to business class!

In collaboration with Lantal, a partner company, a special seat was developed and tested during the simulation. This seat is built with an inflatable pneumatic technology offers several positions (flying, relaxation and resting) and has an integrated toilet. Wow, no morewaiting in line to go to the bathroom!

As to avoid any health issues that can arrive from immobility, André has been pursuing a series of exercises developed by Doctors and Osteopath from Hirslanden. Watching these exercises on our screens from André's on-board cameras, these look really strange and one may wonder what he is really up to ! Actually my theory is that he is using some of those techniques he picked up in India.

Landing expected at 08h00 (UTC+1). Go for it André, less than 90 minutes left.

And for Bertrand, we will see you later this year here in the simulator. But in the meantime we have a few real flightscoming up soon

But how does he do it? I've got my own idea about this Firstly, the team almost never leave him in peace: the medical checks, the questionnaires, and the surprises sprung by the control center. But what you might not know is that he is a real gourmet! This is borne out by the number of photos I've been through in which he is nibbling.

However, as you might suspect he can't eat anything he wants (Amira, who is looking after nutrition, is never far away and keeps a constant eye on him).

In collaboration with André and Bertrand, Nestlé Health Science and the Nestlé research centre have produced nutritional solutions adapted to the needs of the pilots. The food must meet the following characteristics: it must maximise the pilot's energy, not use too much energy for digestion, withstand the temperature variations (between - 20° + 35°) and be wrapped in practical compact packaging.

Here is a glimpse of his menu over 24 hours: 

The next most popular question is still what André does after these snacks Lavoisier's maxim "Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed" answers this partially Better than words, here is a video:

As mentioned by Brian in 2008, I think he's making up for all those hours of video gaming he didn't have when he was young! I'm sure there's a lot of envy there!

After this first night, I welcome the chance of talking about fatigue management, which we are testing here in Dübendorf during this virtual flight.

For the round the world flight, the pilot's rest strategy will be divided into 2 phases:

• For flights over land, the pilot will not sleep, because these flights will be shorter, something like 24 to 36 hours, and he will use relaxation techniques other than sleep. This is what André was doing during the 26 hour Night Flight in 2010.
• However, for crossing oceans (the Pacific and the Atlantic), the pilot will organise his sleep in multiple phases; he will take micro-naps of around 20 minutes each only on the parts of the flight that are outside controlled air spaces and only over water.

Here we are training in two types of rest: relaxation and napping (micro-naps). André can sleep for 6 hours in 20 minute periods staggered over a day (24 hrs).

In addition, we are taking advantage of the time André is in the simulator to put him into a sleep deficit situation so that we can assess his degree of vigilance day and night, before and after rest periods.

This will enable us to develop the best flight and rest strategy for each pilot based on their individual aptitudes.

In this exercise, the Solar Impulse team is supported by different partners to produce the best strategy: two laboratories at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) are taking part: the Embedded Systems Laboratory (ESL) and the Defitech Foundation Chair in Non-invasive Brain-computer Interfacing (CNBI)

The ESL is going to measure the pilot's heart rate and the CNBI will measure his brain activity. In parallel, the researchers from the EPFL are going to carry out attention and reaction-speed tests at regular intervals, and study his responses to questionnaires.

A team of Hirslanden doctors are monitoring the progress of the simulation and analysing the physiological and medical data gathered in order to measure the quality of the pilot's rest and also the effects of a long-duration flight.

Here is a video to give you a glimpse of these tests!

Now that we have completed the "Rivages" project of building Bernard Stamm's new 60 foot monocoque, better known by the name of "Cheminées poujoulat", which is due to take part in the forthcoming Vendée Globe 2012, we move on at the beginning of July to our next project, building the S2, code name for the new Solar Impulse airplane.

Once again we go from boat to airplane, but with our expertise in the use of composite materials as the common factor.

Even before the first flights of HB-SIA, our team at Decision SA were thinking about innovations that could be implemented in the new plane. We reached the stage of working on the lightest carbon fibres weighing only 90 g/m2 (by comparison the sheets of paper we all use daily weigh 80 g/m2) and we wanted to find solutions that we could put to the Solar Impulse design team to make the plane even lighter wherever possible.

The way forward came by taking recent developments in yacht sails by the company Createx of Cossonay and combining them with a new technology called TPT, or Thin Ply Technology. With this technology, we succeeded in laying down on our vacuum tables complex multiple layers of 25 g/m2, plotted by a robot guaranteeing absolute precision in the angles and positioning of the fibres. Incidentally, the CNT (Carbon Nano Tube) included in the new epoxy resin was developed and supplied by Bayer, one of the main sponsors of Solar Impulse.

To validate this new process we worked all through spring and, thanks to the intensive and productive collaboration among all those involved (the Solar Impulse Design Team, Createx SA, Empa and Decision SA), we came to the conclusion that this highly innovative process should be used in building the S2.

So here we are at the end of the year, with all the tools for manufacturing the wing spar completed, and in the process of making the braces for the spar which, when assembled, will be more than 70 m long.

The initial stages of this construction epitomise the mindset of those driving this marvellous project forward: a constant effort to find innovative solutions, to establish their reliability and then to implement them.

Hence the pleasure we all have at Decison SA in building the structures of this extraordinary airplane.

HIRSLANDEN

MEDICAL ADVISOR

With 14 hospitals and a wide-ranging network of over 100 competence centres and specialist institutes, Hirslanden is making its expertise available to the Solar Impulse team. 

DECISION SA

OFFICIAL SUPPLIER

A company based in Ecublens and specialised for more than 25 years in the development and construction of structures made from composite materials.

A working partner of the Solar Impulse project from the outset, more than 90% of HB-SIA’s structure emerged from its workshops.

www.decision.ch