solar airplane? Piccard & the A-rabs

With credit to 'Propwash', from Aero-News.net
see this:
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A Solar Plane to be funded by A-rabs In Oil Country?

United Arab Emirates cited as 'Likely' To Fund Sun-Powered
Aircraft (airplane) Experiment.

Maybe Steve Fossett had it wrong -- maybe there IS
another aviation record worth breaking.

And maybe,

Monsieur Bertrand Piccard will break it.

Piccard, who went to The United Arab Emirates for a
freewheeling
'Festival of Thinkers,'
told the Khaleej Times
he now has 50 people working on creation of a solar
powered aircraft.

Piccard said he expects to begin construction of the
aircraft next year.

'I am hopeful of making the first test-flight by the
end of 2007, cross continents flights and oceans between
2008 and 2009, and actually go around the world in
2010,' he told the Times.

As Aero-News Network reported in 2003, Piccard has
help from the Laussane Federal Institute of Technology.

But while that might give him a leg up on the technological
side of development, it doesn't necessarily fund the
project.

For that, Piccard is reportedly turning to the UAE.
For more than a few squeaks from the Sheiks. Will
he have to heckle to get more than a Shekel ?

During his trip to the arabiya UAE,
Piccard met with His Excellency
Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan,
UAE Minister of Education,
to obtain further backing for his project.

'I have all the reasons to believe that this is going
to be one of the milestones of exploration in the 21st
century. It is history in the making and I would like
to have the arab emirates and the Higher Colleges of
Technology as partners in this project,' he told the
KhaleejTimes.

Once his aircraft is built,
Piccard plans to fly it around the world -- non-stop