Could the Wright Brothers have invented the airplane under social media scrutiny?by Commentary|#Social Media |
In
a psychiatrist's office at the bottom of the ocean, a cartoon shark
named Joe is reclining on a chaise lounge, telling his shrink that he's
having “nightmares of André’ landing in Hawaii.”
Welcome to the surreal social media world of Solar Impulse 2, the world’s first solar-powered plane.
Piloted by two charismatic Swiss adventurers André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, Solar
Impulse 2 is capable of flying continuously using nothing but energy
absorbed from the Sun. On March 9, after 12 years’ diligent planning,
the airplane took off from Abu Dhabi, on a journey around the world.
But
while circumnavigating the globe without a drop of fuel is certainly a
major goal of Solar Impulse 2, it also represents an ongoing case study
in the use of social media: to promote scientific innovation, to disarm
naysayers and to keep stakeholders enthused.
“We
sat down with our team and realized that there was a great opportunity
to create a pessimistic character that wanted the plane to go down,”
Vincent Colegrave, social media manager at Solar Impulse's command
center in Monaco, tells Quartz. Colegrave credits Joe the Shark as a
motivator for many of Solar Impulse 2's supporters.
Trailblazers
of the skies are acutely aware of the power of social media when
they’re pushing the boundaries of aerospace science. Whenever humanity
does something extraordinary in the sky, it attracts unparalleled levels
of visibility.
Case in point: Felix Baumgartner’s audacious jump from
24 miles’ altitude in 2012. Fueled by the marketing muscle of the Red
Bull brand, [pullquote]“There was a great opportunity to create a
pessimistic character that wanted the plane to go
down.”[/pullquote]Baumgartner’
But
what happens to aviation pioneers when the trajectory veers off course?
Can YouTube, Twitter and Facebook channels help save the day—and the
brand? Pushing the boundaries of aerospace science usually involves
considerable risk, and often danger.
Today's
aerial adventurers have a fighting chance of getting a second
chance—via social media—to explain failure and dispel the proliferation
of rumor when things go wrong. But it certainly wasn't that way
during the inception of aviation pioneering.
In
the 1920s and 30s for example, people anticipated that airships would
be the aerial paradigm of tomorrow, succeeding ocean liners. After all,
airships could fly at twice the speed of ships and travel anywhere,
unhindered by the geographic limitations of the coastline. Two iconic
examples of that age, Britain's R101 and Germany's Hindenburgpushed
aviation science into new scientific territory. They pioneered new
technologies that were ground-breaking in terms of materials,
construction techniques and navigational functionality—and they also
served important PR functions.
The
R101—a showcase for the grandeur of the British Empire—was designed
to link Great Britain with its colonial outposts in India, Canada,
Australia, and Africa. The Hindenburg's PR agenda was more sinister—to
accentuate the technological supremacy of the Third Reich. Both airships
employed cutting-edge aviation science, were luxurious and swift—the
Concordes of their day.
The
R101 introduced such innovations as diesel engine technology, pressure
valves on its flotation bags and steel rib structures; the Hindenburg
had a gyroscopic compass controlled by auto-pilot and even a lightweight Aluminum piano—a PR coup—offering passengers all the comforts of a hotel lounge bar.
It's
exactly the type of quirky innovation that would have been Tweeted,
Instagrammed or Snapchatted had social media been around at the time.
Many of the innovations pioneered in these aircraft would become
commonplace in airplanes of later decades. But the future of airship
passenger air transport was cut short in 1937 due to a shocking tragedy
that attracted unprecedented of media coverage.
On May 6, 1937, the 245-meter-long Hindenburg was
sent plummeting to Earth after leaking Hydrogen gas ignited during
docking at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. Airship disasters
were not uncommon at that time—in the US, the USS Shenandoah and USS
Akron had crashed in 1925 and 1933 respectively, and the British R101 met a similar fate
in October 1930. The comparatively low key way in which the American
and British accidents were reported, however, made the future of
airships salvageable. But by 1937, news reporting included movies—and
sound.
The Hindenburg disaster was captured on film and shown in movie theaters across
the country. The shocking spectacle of the German airship, transformed
within seconds into a plummeting inferno, horrified the audience—and
airships were swiftly abandoned. But it wasn't the event or the
airship's technology but rather the way in which it was presented
through the media that stifled what might have been—and still could be—a
viable commercial air transport technology.
Today's
two-way flow of dialogue between aerospace pioneers and their followers
on social media improves the prospects for pioneering projects to
survive when things go wrong.
"The flight test accident generated a lot of attention for our Mojave aerospace community," a Virgin Galactic spokesperson [name?] told Quartz, referencing the aftermath of the SpaceShipTwo crash last October.
[pullquote]Today's
two-way flow of dialogue improves the prospects for pioneering projects
to survive when things go wrong.[/pullquote]"Virgin Galactic receivedexpressions of support through
letters, emails, social posts, and even tattoos from space enthusiasts
and innovators, customers and fans, people who live on Earth and those
stationed in space."
But
social media can also be a conduit for misinformation, he said. "Along
with that support came speculation and some fundamental
misunderstandings about the nature of testing which resulted in some
hasty, inaccurate and even scary media reports," the spokesperson noted.
That's
part of the challenge of pioneering in the social media age. People are
so thirsty for information that when the facts aren't yet
available, panic-prone individuals and members of the media are able to
fill in the blanks.
In 2013, Boeing faced its own highly-publicized aviation innovation challenge after issues surrounding the 787's batteries put the planemaker itself in the spotlight.
Strategically pre-empting any speculation, Boeing deployed its full spectrum of social media tools in order to explain the new battery technologies.
Instead of hiding behind technical jargon or empty reassurance,
Boeing's corporate communications team chose to tell customers outright
that problems with new aircraft often center around an increasing reliance on electrical systems.
It was, in fact, battery woes that would keep Solar Impulse 2 from completing its own flight.
Although
the plane landed landed safely in Hawaii on July 3, the trip was halted
when engineers realized that the plane's batteries had become damaged
due to overheating. By the time the repair could be made, the window of
opportunity had past: the right weather conditions wouldn't happen again
until spring 2016. Solar Impulse's pilots had to go “off-piste” and
navigate the slippery slopes of public scrutiny.
“Making
the impossible happen takes more time than the possible. It will be a
flight around the world in two years instead of one,” explained Piccard to
followers via Solar Impulse's YouTube channel, standing in front of his
plane in a Hawaiian hangar. “Exploration and adventure—it's not only
when you raise the flag of success, it's also when you have delays,
problems, doubts.”
"In
the last three years our strategy on social media did evolve a lot. Our
goal has been to go towards as much live coverage as we could, as long
as it is not mission critical," says Colegrave. "It led to publishing
those videos where Bertrand and André did explain the situation,
directly facing our community."
When
the adventure starts up again, there will be no less drama—while Solar
Impulse 2 luxuriates in the tropical hospitality of Kalaeloa Airport,
off the Hawaiian coast Joe is lurking under the waves, waiting for
spring to arrive.
Follow Paul on Twitter @paulsillers. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment