André Borschberg

FRSGS The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) is an educational charity based in Perth, Scotland founded in 1884. The purpose of the society is to advance the subject of geography worldwide, inspire people to learn more about the world around ...

(born December 13, 1952) is a Swiss entrepreneur, explorer, pilot, and speaker. He is the co-founder of the

Solar Impulse project Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, and also the name of the project's two operational aircraft. The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss p ...

, the first ever round-the-world solar flight, successfully completed in July 2016. During the Japan-to-Hawaii leg, André broke the world record for longest solo flight in an airplane of any kind: 117 hours and 52 minutes, breaking

Steve Fossett James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – September 3, 2007) was an American businessman and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraf ...

's 2006 record. Before that, on 7 July 2010, André completed the first 24-hour solar-powered flight. The flight set records for the longest manned

solar-powered Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic ef ...

flight and the greatest height reached by a manned solar aircraft. He currently holds 14 FAI world records in the free distance, free distance along a course, straight distance, straight distance predeclared waypoints, distance along a course, duration, absolute altitude, gain of height. His groundbreaking record: the longest solo flight in an airplane of any kind: 117 hours and 52 minutes. Borschberg flew as a jet pilot in the

Swiss Air Force The Swiss Air Force (german: Schweizer Luftwaffe; french: Forces aériennes suisses; it, Forze aeree svizzere; rm, Aviatica militara svizra) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914 as a part of the army and ...

prior to his work with Solar Impulse. An engineer by education and a graduate of the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, ...

, André Borschberg has solid experience in creating and managing companies. His passion for aviation and his interest in innovative solutions have led him to team up with

Bertrand Piccard Bertrand Piccard FRSGS (born 1 March 1958) is a Swiss explorer, psychiatrist and environmentalist. Along with Brian Jones, he was the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe, in a balloon named Breitling Orbiter 3. He was t ...

as CEO, co-founder, and pilot of Solar Impulse. For his role in delivering and piloting Solar Impulse, André was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 2018. This was awarded jointly with

Pilot career

Fascinated by aviation from his earliest youth, André Borschberg trained as a pilot in the

Swiss air force The Swiss Air Force (german: Schweizer Luftwaffe; french: Forces aériennes suisses; it, Forze aeree svizzere; rm, Aviatica militara svizra) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914 as a part of the army and ...

, flying first

Venoms Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

and then

Hunters Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, et ...

and

Tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...

for over 20 years. Today he holds both professional airplane and helicopter pilot's licenses and also does aerobatics in his spare time.

Engineer and management career

After graduating from the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

(EPFL) in mechanics and thermodynamics, he supplemented his training with a Master's in Management Science from the

, preceded by certificates in financial management and business management at HEC Lausanne. He first joined McKinsey, one of the world's leading business consultancies, as a consultant for five years, before starting his own entrepreneurial activities. He went initially into partnership with a venture capital company, Lowe Finance. With a technical team from EPFL, he co-founded Innovative Silicon, a technology company in the field of microprocessor memories.

''Solar Impulse''

André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard released in 2017 ''Objectif Soleil'', a book about how they lived through

Solar Impulse Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, and also the name of the project's two operational aircraft. The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss p ...

project.

Management

Borschberg is the head of the project Solar Impulse with Bertrand Piccard as the CEO, heading a team of 65 specialists and numerous partners.

Engineering

As a mechanical engineer and pilot, he is directing the construction of the aircraft and the preparation of the flight missions. "We need to find a way to build an aircraft that is super-robust & super-light at the same time, and above all extremely efficient with energy consumption, so as to need only minuscule amounts of energy in order to fly. But with the same degree of resistance as a normal airplane. Hence the great complexity of the project, which gives the true measure of its philosophy and its objectives."

Medical partner

The emergency department of the

Hirslanden Clinique Cecil Hirslanden Clinique Cecil is a Swiss hospital, located in Lausanne, Vaud. Founded in 1931, it has been part of the Hirslanden Private Hospital Group since 1990. During the 2015/16 fiscal year, 3,974 hospitalised patients were treated by 391 phys ...

is the official medical partner of

and André Borschberg’s world tour for Solar Impulse.

''Solar Impulse 1'' missions

* ''Solar Night Flight'': On 7 July 2010, André Borschberg has, for the first time in history, flown 26 hours with the Solar Impulse airplane, demonstrating at the same time the possibility to fly day and night with only solar energy to propel the airplane. * ''European Solar Flights'': Solar Impulse HB-SIA, piloted by André Borschberg, completed three international flights during the European campaign: Payerne to Brussels on 13 May (630 km), Brussels to Paris-Le Bourget on 14 June (395 km), and Paris-Le Bourget to Payerne on 3 July (426 km). * ''Crossing frontiers'': Solar Impulse, piloted alternately by André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, made its first intercontinental flight in 2012 from Switzerland (Payerne) to Toulouse, and then on to Morocco. * ''Across America'': Solar Impulse has completed the historic crossing of the United States over a 2-month period in the summer of 2013. Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, the two pilots, flew from San Francisco to New York, stopping over in cities along the way. With the goal of the world's first solar-powered round the world flight initiated on March 9, 2015, these flights have provided good learning opportunities in terms of slotting the solar aircraft into international air space and landing at international airports.

''Solar Impulse 2'' missions

Taking turns at the controls of the airplane with his partner Bertrand Piccard for the first ever round-the-world solar flight, successfully achieved in July 2016.

FAI world records

André Borschberg achieved 8 FAI world records flying with ''Solar Impulse 1''. During three historical flights (2010 night flight, 2012 Payerne to Madrid, and 2013 Phoenix to Dallas), he was awarded 8 FAI World records: free distance, free distance along a course, straight distance, straight distance predeclared waypoints, distance along a course, duration, absolute altitude, gain of height. With the ''Solar Impulse 2,'' he broke the record of the longest solo flight previously held by

Steve Fosset James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – September 3, 2007) was an American businessman and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraf ...

. On 3 July 2015 Borschberg flew the solar-powered airplane between

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

(Japan) and

Kalaeloa, Hawaii Kalaeloa () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 2,364 at the 2020 census. The community occupies the location of the former Naval Air Station Barbers Point, which was closed in 1999 an ...

(US) for a duration of 4 days, 21 hours, and 52 minutes.

H55

In early 2017 Borschberg co-founded the Swiss tech start-up H 55 based in

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

. H55 is a technological spinoff of

. The company develops and sells

electric propulsion Spacecraft electric propulsion (or just electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion technique that uses electrostatic or electromagnetic fields to accelerate mass to high speed and thus generate thrust to modify the velocity of a sp ...

technologies to aircraft manufacturers. In 2017 the company launched its first aircraft, the Aerol, followed by the Bristell Energic in 2019.