Twelve years on the project, and a formative experience for Prefix.

Context

Solar Impulse was founded in 2004 with the ambition of completing the first round-the-world flight in an aircraft powered solely by solar energy.

The project developed in two main stages. In 2010, Solar Impulse 1 demonstrated that it was possible to fly through day and night using solar energy. Solar Impulse 2 then completed the round-the-world flight in 2016.

Philippe Lauper joined Solar Impulse at the very beginning of the project. He worked on it for twelve years, first as a project manager and later as head of flight mission logistics.

Prefix was created during this adventure. The final years of the collaboration therefore continued through Prefix, until the completion of the round-the-world flight.

Our work

As a project manager, Philippe contributed to defining and scoping the project, developing the aircraft specifications, detailed planning, risk management, project team coordination and progress reporting to the steering committee. This gave him the opportunity to put project management into practice on a particularly large and complex project.

He also contributed to defining and implementing the organisation’s working processes, including human resources, IT, engineering, supply chain and project management.

As head of flight mission logistics, he was then responsible for defining the logistical requirements, procurement, testing and deployment during the different flight missions. These included the inflatable hangar used to protect the aircraft when operating away from its home base.

This hands-on experience, working across very different disciplines and situations, continues to shape the way Prefix supports the evolution of people and organisations through mentoring, as well as the development of the Circular Project Management method.

Reflection

Philippe Lauper, Founder of Prefix

To this day, Solar Impulse was the biggest project I participated to. It’s the first one that allowed me to apply the project management method and tools in a very broad and complex context. This project also largely inspired me the creation of the Circular Project Management method and still is a perfect example and big conversation topic during my trainings.

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