A solar-powered airplane, in a record-breaking attempt to fly around the world using clean energy, completed the first leg of its journey, touching down on Muscat in Oman on March 9 after a 13-hour flight from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
This record-breaking attempt comes after positive results for the Solar Impulse's prototype. It acquired eight world records, and was the first solar airplane to fly in nighttime between two continents and across the continental United States.
The Solar Impulse 2, piloted by Andre Borschbeg with Bertrand Piccard as an alternate, is now attempting to cross both the Pacific and Atlantic, skipping from continent to continent, to promote clean technology. Relying only on clean energy, the Solar Impulse 2 has a wingspan of 72 meters, wider than a 747 jet. Containing 17,000 solar cells, this second-generation solar plane also has a complement of energy-dense lithium-ion batteries to sustain nighttime flight.
Before taking off for the first leg of the journey, Borschberg told in an interview with BBC News, "I am confident we have a very special aeroplane, and it will have to be to get us across the big oceans. We may have to fly for five days and five nights to do that, and it will be a challenge. But we have the next two months, as we fly the legs to China, to train and prepare ourselves."
The entire journey started from Abu Dhabi in the UAE and will include stopovers in Muscat, Oman; Ahmedabad and Varanasi in India; Mandalay, Myanmar; and Chongqing and Nanjing, China.
After the Solar Impluse 2 crosses the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii, it will attempt to fly across the U.S. with three stops – Phoenix, New York, and a still undecided location in the Midwest, owing to the weather situation. It will then cross the Atlantic with the final leg doing stopovers in Southern Europe or North Africa before arriving back in the UAE.
