Solar jet flying over Atlantic
Print Edition
THE Solar Impulse 2 aircraft was flying over the western Atlantic yesterday morning on one of the most difficult legs of its record-breaking bid to cross the globe using only solar energy.
The plane, which took off from New York’s JFK Airport at around 2:30am, is piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, who is expected to spend approximately 90 hours — during which he will take only short naps — crossing the Atlantic.
“It’s my first time taking off from JFK,” Piccard said over a live feed from the aircraft as he headed off into the night sky en route to Spain’s Seville Airport.
Several hours later he posted on Twitter that despite a previous full moon there is “now a pink sky in front of me, the day is waking up.”
The voyage marks the first solo transatlantic crossing in a solar-powered airplane and is expected to last four consecutive days and nights, depending on weather.
The plane, which is no heavier than a car but has the wingspan of a Boeing 747, is being flown on its 35,000-kilometer trip by two pilots taking turns, Piccard and Swiss entrepreneur Andre Borschberg.
“I’m in the cockpit this time, but we’re flying together,” Piccard told Borschberg before takeoff.
The pair has flown varying legs of the journey, with Borschberg piloting the flight’s final Pacific stage, a 6,437km flight between Japan and Hawaii.
The 118-hour leg smashed the previous record for the longest uninterrupted journey in aviation history.
The plane, now on the 15th leg of its east-west trip, set out on March 9, 2015, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and has taken the aircraft across Asia and the Pacific to the United States with the sun as its only source of power.
“Smooth takeoff and all #Si2 systems have been checked here at the Mission Control Center for the #Atlantic Crossing,” Borschberg posted on Twitter soon after Solar Impulse 2’s departure.
Approximately a third of the journey still remains for the plane, which will fly through Europe and on to Abu Dhabi after crossing the Atlantic.
The single-seat aircraft is clad in 17,000 solar cells. During nighttime flights it runs on battery-stored power.
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