Sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 Begins Most Dangerous Leg in Journey Across World
-as Pilot Takes Off on Six-Day Flight over Pacific
- Aircraft attempting to become first solar-powered plane to fly around world
- Today the Solar Impulse 2 embarked on the longest leg of its journey
- Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg is flying 5,270 miles from China to Hawaii
- Pilot can only sleep for 20 minutes at a time.
- Ambitious flight has faced repeated delays due to poor weather conditions
Daily Mail UK, 31 May 2015
A solar-powered aircraft today embarked on an ambitious crossing of the Pacific Ocean.
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.
Pilot Andre Borschberg, 62, took off from Nanjing, in eastern China, early on Sunday morning and will head east towards Hawaii. The 5,270 mile journey is expected to take six days and six nights.
If it is successful, the flight - the most ambitious, and the longest of the aircraft's journey - will be the longest ever in a solar-powered plane.
Ready for take off: The sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 is pictured on the tarmac in Nanjing, eastern China
In the air: Pilot Andre Borschberg, 62, will fly the aircraft, pictured, more than 5,000 miles to Hawaii
Lit by white lights on the underside of its wings, the plane taxied down the runway before climbing into a misty sky - its four whirling propellers nearly silent.
Speaking just hours before take off, Mr Borschberg said: 'I cross my fingers and I hope to cross the Pacific. We have a good weather window, which means we have a stable corridor to reach Hawaii.'
The current flight plan saw no threat from typhoons, a typical weather threat in Asia.
He added: 'I'm really confident we should be able to get through and find the right way.'
To break up flying day and night, Solar Impulse 2 is stopping in 12 locations around the world.
The 25 days of flying time were initially expected to be completed in around five months, but difficult weather has led to set backs in planned departure times.
Ambitious: To break up flying day and night, Solar Impulse 2, pictured today, is stopping in 12 locations
Daybreak: Lit by white lights on its wings, the plane taxied down the runway before climbing into a misty sky
The plane arrived in China from Myanmar on 31 March for what was expected to be a brief stop-over. But it took two months for the weather conditions to be right for take off.
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SOLAR IMPULSE 2 SPECIFICATIONS
The solar-powered airplane made its maiden flight in Switzerland in June last year.
The single-seater aircraft is made of carbon fibre, and the ****pit has a total area of 40.9 square feet (3.8 square metres).
It has no fuel on board and weighs around the same as a car at 382 stone (2,300kg).
With a wingspan of 236ft (72 metres), it is larger than a Boeing 747-8I jet liner.
The 17,000 solar cells built into the wings supply four electric motors (17.5 CV each) with renewable energy.
During the day, the solar cells recharge lithium batteries weighing 2,077lbs (633kg) allowing the aircraft to fly day and night.
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Mr Borschberg, who trained as a fighter pilot in the Swiss air force, will face extreme temperatures in the unpressurised and unheated 3.8-cubic-metre ****pit.
Educated as a mechanical engineer and later becoming an entrepreneur, Mr Borschberg said he will use yoga to deal with the stress to his body during the flight.
He will try to stay awake for most of the flight, only allowing himself short catnaps in his seat, which doubles as a bed.
Despite the potential danger - failure could mean a parachute descent into the ocean, far from any rescue ship - the pilot has downplayed the risk of the flight.
He said: 'I don't see it as risky, in the sense that we worked a long time on all these different questions. In the worst case, we have a parachute, we have a life raft and we know how to use it.
'Of course, hoping that we will not need to do that.'
Planners had identified airports in Japan should the plane need to make a stop because of technical problems, but the open ocean offered no such possibility, he said.
He added: 'As soon as we leave this part of the world, then afterwards we are in the open sea. There is no way to come back.'
Solar Impulse 2 is powered by more than 17,000 solar cells built into wings that, at 72 metres, are longer than those of a Boeing 747 and approaching those of an Airbus A380 superjumbo.
The plane is the successor of Solar Impulse, which notched up a 26-hour flight in 2010, proving its ability to store enough power in lithium batteries during the day to keep flying at night.
Ridiculed by the aviation industry when it was first unveiled, the Solar Impulse venture has since been hailed around the world, including by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
Success: Chairman of Solar Impulse Bertrand Piccard, left, and Prince Albert II of Monaco watch the take off
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THE SOLAR IMPULSE 2 JOURNEY
To break up flying day and night, Solar Impulse 2 is stopping in 12 locations around the world.
After taking off in Abu Dhabi on 9 March 2015, capital of the United Arab Emirates, it stopped in Muscat in Oman before heading to Ahmedabad in India on 10 March and Varanasi, also in India, on 18 March.
On the same day it flew to Mandalay, Burma, before making a pit stop in Chongqing, China on 29 March - for three weeks, rather than the one planned.
It is now flying to Nanjing, and will then cross the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii, after another pit stop, a flight which will take five days.
A landing site in the south west of the US will be chosen depending on weather conditions, before the Solar Impulse 2 stops off at Phoenix and at JFK airport in New York City.
After crossing the Atlantic Ocean in five days, it will make a stop somewhere in southern Europe, before undertaking the final leg of its journey to land back in Abu Dhabi in July.
The 22,000-mile (35,000km) trip will span 25 flight days, spread over five months.
The two pilots are working together with a crew of 80 technicians, engineers and a communications team.
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