Environment Writer
A SOLAR-POWERED aircraft took off from Japan yesterday to begin a historical five-day non-stop crossing of the Pacific to Hawaii – the longest leg of its round-the-world flight.
The plane, the Solar Impulse 2, piloted by Swiss pilot André Borschberg, weighs the same as an ordinary sedan car, but has a 72m wingspan – larger than a Boeing – to carry the more than 17 000 solar cells needed to supply its electric motors with power. The solar cells recharge four lithium polymer batteries, enabling the aircraft to fly at night.
The departure of the Solar Impulse on its seventh leg of its round-the-world trip had to be delayed several times because of bad weather, while the first 10 hours of flight yesterday were made difficult, organisers said, by technical problems.
Borschberg, the co-founder of the aircraft, said before taking off that the trans-Pacific crossing was the “moment of truth” for the solar-powered plane.
“It’s where everything comes together, the engineers who worked on the airplane for the last 12 years, the mission control centre who will have to predict weather and guide the airplane through good conditions and Bertrand (Piccard) who had this vision 16 years ago of an airplane flying for days without fuel to change our mindset regarding the potential of clean technologies and renewable energies,” Borschberg said.
Organisers said the flight would be demanding because of its duration and because there was no place to land.
They said the trans-Pacific flight would be a “real-life test of endurance for the pilot while at the same time pushing the limits of the airplane to even new levels. Successfully arriving in Hawaii will prove that the impossible is achievable”.
The plane is expected to take 120 hours to cover the 7 200km.
The pilot will live in the tiny 3.8m3 cockpit, “maintaining his confidence that the energy collected from the sun throughout the day will last through the night”, organisers said.
Because he has to stay alert for most of the flight, Borschberg will sleep for just 20 minutes at a time.
Piccard said an aircraft flying day and night without fuel was “more than a spectacular milestone in aviation; it’s the living proof that clean technologies and renewable energies can achieve incredible feats, and that all these energy efficient technologies should now be used globally to have a cleaner world”.
The plane took off from Abu Dhabi in March on the 35 000km round-the-world trip. Overall, the trip is expected to span approximately 25 flight days broken up into 12 legs at speeds of between 50 and 100km/h.
l Track the flight on www.solarimpulse.com