Solar-powered plane sets off for Hawaii
Print Edition
A SOLAR-powered plane took off from Japan yesterday on the seventh leg of its journey round the world, a trans-Pacific crossing expected to be the toughest part of the trip.
Solar Impulse 2 had left Nanjing on May 31 for Hawaii but was forced to cut short its bid a day later due to what pilot Andre Borschberg termed “a wall of clouds” over the Pacific and land in the central Japanese city of Nagoya.
Its departure was postponed several times due to poor weather, once last week with the plane — which bears 17,000 solar cells across its wingspan — on standby at the end of a runway.
“This is a one-way ticket to Hawaii,” organizers said on their website yesterday, eight hours after the plane’s predawn departure. “Andre Borschberg ... must now see this five days, five nights flight through to the end.”
The plane took off from Abu Dhabi in March on its 35,000-kilometer global journey. The trip was expected to span about 25 flight days broken up into 12 legs at speeds between 50 and 100 kph.
The plane is only as heavy a family car but has a wingspan as wide as the largest passenger airliner. Studies, design and construction took 12 years and a first version in 2009 broke records for heights and distances by a manned solar plane.
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