Solar Impulse Mobile Hangar

Hangar gonfiabile trasportabile

Solar Impulse Mobile Hangar

FLY IN is official SPECIALIZED PARTNER of the Solar Impulse project, for which it has created the ultra-light aircraft’s mobile hangar.

This is probably an absolute first in the field of inflatable structures: building the mobile hangar for Solar Impulse, the Swiss ultra-light aircraft powered which travels around the world powered by solar energy. An extraordinary adventure on the frontier of what’s possible, a hard test on the edge of technology and human bravery…

The Solar Impulse mobile hangar project started in 2009 when, against all odds and expectations, FLY IN’s idea of building a hangar based on inflatable and assembled modules in a very short time beat any competing idea, until the granting of the mandate to FLY IN by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg.

‘The idea was to overturn the concept: it was not a matter for this plane, with its long wings, to enter into the hangar, but to build a hangar capable of growing around the plane’.
Mauro Oggero

The main requirements of the call for bids were strict and binding in their absolute simplicity: the design and production of a cover which was totally impermeable to water, while allowing the necessary light to pass through in order to recharge the aircraft’s batteries.
The structure had to be able to withstand and protect Solar Impulse from winds up to 100 km per hour. As this was a world tour, we are talking about resistance to sudden and violent tropical storms, involving whipping winds, heavy showers and hail.
Of course, at the same time, the hangar had to be very light, so that it could be assembled and disassembled without machines by a small number of people. It also had to take up little space, so that it could very quickly be packed and transported by air.

PARTNER: Cardinali Group

engineering
design

water based
EcoPrint

zero
noise

recyclable
materials

minimal
consumption

small & light
transport

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