A solar-powered airship will soon go on a trip around the world: it will circle the Earth in 20 days

French startup Euro Airship will make the world's first non-stop trip around the world on the Solar Airship One airship with zero carbon emissions, reports New Atlas.

Photo: IStock

Long-haul, zero-emission flights are absolutely possible... As long as you're not in a rush. Solar Airship One will take 20 days to fly around the entire equator - that's about 40 km in one flight.

The Euro Airship team is preparing to make a zero-carbon circumnavigation of the world in 2026, staying close to the equator and at an altitude of around 6000m. The average speed should be just over 83km/h. This is much less than the average fossil fuel-powered airliner. But airships have some key advantages: You can stop and start almost anywhere without a runway.

The entire top surface of the 151-meter-long blimp will be covered in solar panels—about 4800 square meters (that's nine-tenths the size of an NFL football field).

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During the day, solar panels will power the airship's electrical power plants, and also store additional energy for night flight by electrolyzing water into hydrogen. At night, hydrogen will flow through the fuel cell, providing energy to continue operation.

It will be piloted by a team of three: former French astronaut and Air Force pilot Michele Tognini, acrobatic high-altitude flight pilot who survived a plane crash and was left paralyzed from the waist down Doreen Bourneton, and adventurer and “inspiration” Bertrand Piccard. He circumnavigated the world in a hot air balloon in 1999 and also piloted Solar Impulse 2 on the first solar-powered flight around the world in 16 and a half months in 2015–2016.

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Indeed, while projects such as the AirYacht and the acclaimed Airlander aim to revive airships as a form of luxury passenger travel, others believe hydrogen-fueled airships are the future of zero-emission cargo travel.

The energy that Solar Airship One will use is renewable, but one key component is not. Solar Airship One's rigid structure is filled with 15 individual shells containing a total of 50 cubic meters of helium. Non-flammable and safe helium is perfect for such aircraft. Fun fact: helium is the only element on Earth that is completely irreplaceable because when it gets into the air, it rises straight out of the atmosphere and is released into space.

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