The driving force behind Stephane Rousson and his companion’s project is to come up with an innovative, silent and efficient maritime vehicle that makes use of wind only to propel itself forward. The vehicle is known as ‘aerosail’ and comes from a Frenchman,` Stephane Rousson.
The duo plans to cross the Mediterranean from Nice to Calive on the island of Corsica by the end of October. The unique principle that has been employed by Aerosail enables the user to pilot the airship that has been tethered to a stabilized keel via a cable. The keel is known as Seaglider and the cable acts as the mast and the airship checks in as the sail.
A practice run was carried out in Roquerbrune-Cap-Martin, Southeastern France before the scheduled crossing. Rousson has a cancelled crossing on his resume from back in 2008 when he was attempting to cross the English Channel and had to cancel the scheduled crossing somewhere near the halfway point in his pedal powered airship, owing to strong winds.
Fingers crossed for this crossing where he’s hoping that he’d find calmer weather!