IEEE Spectrum: Bertrand Piccard's Big Hydrogen Adventure : He'll fly around the world in a hydrogen fuel-cell aircraft

[Caribbeans]

Bertrand Piccard, the scion of a family with multiple generations of explorers, is on a mission to demonstrate hydrogen's potential as an aviation fuel. Nicole Millman; Original imagery: Climate Impulse; Library of Congress

Bertrand Piccard’s Big Hydrogen Adventure He'll fly around the world in a hydrogen fuel-cell aircraft

IEEE Spectrum | Glenn Zorpette | May 25, 2025

Few explorers have reached the heights, literally and figuratively, that Bertrand Piccard has. He is the quintessential modern explorer, for whom every big mission has a purpose, which generally boils down to environmental and climate-change awareness.

In 1999 he was the first person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop in a balloon, called Breitling Orbiter 3. Then he and André Borschberg, a Swiss entrepreneur and pilot, were first to fly around the world, in stages, in a solar airplane called Solar Impulse. Now he’s in the midst of what looks like his most technologically ambitious mission yet: to fly around the planet in a green-hydrogen fuel-cell aircraft. Planned for 2028, this trip would be the first nonstop zero-emission circumnavigation in human history.

It’s easy to see how this is the logical next step in Piccard’s remarkable career. And yet there was nothing straightforward about the early stages of the journey that got him here. The path to becoming one of the world’s most celebrated aeronaut-aviators began with hang gliding, which Piccard took up in his teens to confront his fear of heights. He did so with a zeal that earned him the European hang-gliding aerobatics championship in 1985.

Still, it would be years before Piccard joined the family business of exploration. In the mid-1990s he earned an MD degree in psychiatry and established a psychiatric practice before a chance opportunity led to a sideline in ballooning. Invited to participate as copilot in a trans-Atlantic balloon race—which he and his teammate won—he immediately became seized with the idea of being the first to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon...

...Why do you have confidence that hydrogen will eventually succeed as an aviation fuel?

Piccard: It’s a very interesting fuel in terms of energy density, and it’s a fuel that is completely clean. It’s not only a question of carbon emission. There are no emissions at all. So it’s good also for quality of air. With hydrogen you have electric motors, so it’s silent. So for the airports, you have no problems with the neighborhood. This is also important. It’s true that we are very, very early in terms of the use of hydrogen in aviation. And there are some people who criticize this project and say, “It’s impossible. Hydrogen is too expensive. You need to change all the airplanes. You need to change all the airports. You need to create a new industry.” And I answer, “Yes. But it’s not the first time that we’ve done this.” The mobile phone industry started exactly like this. It was $15,000 for a mobile phone the size of a suitcase. And people thought that’s a niche. But now we all have a mobile phone in our pockets...more
https://spectrum.ieee.org/hydrogen-fuel-cell-aircraft


Solar Impulse 2, the solar powered plane, was piloted by Swiss entrepreneur André Borschberg over the pyramids in Giza, Egypt, prior to landing in Cairo on 13 July, 2016.Jean Revillard/Getty Images

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