Anticipation is building over whether Solar Impulse 2 will finally take off from Egypt to Abu Dhabi in the final leg of its historic round-the-world fuel-free flight.
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It had been due to leave Cairo last week but was grounded because of strong winds and Piccard falling ill.
This handout photo obtained June 21, 2016 courtesy of Solar Impulse shows the Solar Impulse 2 over the Azores islands on its multiple-day flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Borschberg piloted the flight’s Pacific stage, a 4,000-mile flight between Nagoya, Japan, and Hawaii.
Although the final leg of the world tour was scheduled to begin on July 16, pilots André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard announced they had made a decision to postpone the flight due to weather issues and the fact that Piccard fell ill while in Cairo.
Solar Impulse 2 on June 23 became the first solar-powered aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean, flying 70 hours from NY to Seville.
Solar Impulse 2 has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, carrying some 17,000 photovoltaic cells which power the plane’s propellers and recharge its batteries. It relies on solar energy collected during the day and stored in batteries for electrical energy to fly at night.
Borschberg told journalists that the heat would be a new challenge for the plane. Mission Control said it had identified a weather window that could allow the plane to overcome the challenging high temperatures across Saudi Arabia.
The around-the-world voyage began in March 2015 in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Borschberg and Piccard have said they want to raise awareness of renewable energy sources and technologies with their project, although they do not expect solar-powered commercial planes any time soon.
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It had earlier landed in Seville after completing the first solo transatlantic flight powered only by sunlight.
