A revolutionary zero-fuel solar plane has taken off for a six-day flight over the Pacific Ocean, from China to Hawaii.
The Solar Impulse 2 – which weighs little more than a car – is attempting to become the first aircraft to fly around the world on solar power alone
Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg is likely to take five to six days of continuous flight to reach his central Pacific destination in the Solar Impulse aeroplane, which has a wingspan bigger than a jumbo but weighs little more than a large car, the BBC reported.
Borschberg, whose progress will be monitored the entire way from a control room in Monaco, will try to stay awake for much of that time, taking only short catnaps.
Meteorologists and flight strategists will constantly update him on the best route to follow. The journey is the seventh leg in the single-seat, propeller-driven aircraft’s quest to circumnavigate the globe using just the energy of the Sun.
Borschberg told before departure that it’s more in the end about him as it’s going to be an inner-voyage, adding that it’s going to be a discovery about how he feels and how he sustain himself during these five or six days in the air.
The purpose of the Solar Impulse project is not really to showcase a particular kind of future for aviation, but rather to demonstrate the potential of clean technologies more generally.
