For most people, this would be a recipe for torture: you are strapped into a tight space for five days and nights. You are unable to move or sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time. Nod off for longer and you die in a plane crash.
But for Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss aeronautical pioneer, this nightmare will be a dream come true. It will be the culmination of an epic venture that has consumed him for a decade. He plans to take off and fly around the world in an aircraft powered only by sunlight.
