The sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 aircraft will resume its around-the-world voyage early Thursday after spending nine months on the ground because of a fried battery and winter’s lack of ample sunlight.
Advertisement
The plane is a collaboration between Switzerland entrepreneurs Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, and partnerships with several multinational companies (including Google) to promote clean energy development.
The trip to Mountain View has an extension of 2,300 miles and Piccard commented that it is ideal that the airship lands in the territory of Silicon Valley, as it is a place of pioneering spirit and revolutionary technology. The flight of Solar Impulse 2 will cap 13 years of research and testing by two Swiss pilots with a round-the-world trip in which it will land 12 times and last about 25 days spread over five months. When first attempting to fly from Nanjing, China, to Hawaii, the crew had to divert to Japan because of unfavorable weather and a damaged wing.
The trans-Pacific leg was the riskiest part of the plane’s global travels, as there was nowhere for it to land in an emergency. The co-founders switch off flying the plane, and the Hawaii-to-mainland USA leg of the flight has Piccard in the cockpit.
Solar Impulse 2 pilot Andre Borschberg (left) confers with Bob Stojanovic of ABB Group – Automation and Power Technologies Director of Microgrids, during a press conference at Kalealoa Airport in Kapolei, Hawaii on April 15.
Strong tailwinds will help the plane and speed up the journey, which is expected to take about three days. The plane’s 236-foot wingspan was built using more than 17,000 solar cells, four electric motors and lithium batteries to replace the need for fuel. The plane runs on stored energy at night. The first version of the plane was irreversibly damaged last summer during a record-breaking 5-day and 5-night flight from Nagoya, Japan, to Hawaii. There was no way to cool them down, the team said, and the system required extensive repairs.
The ultra-lightweight plane took off at 6:18 a.m. Hawaii time (9:18 a.m. PT).
Advertisement
The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 is preparing to leave Hawaii on Thursday to continue its circumnavigation of the globe using only energy from the sun.
