Solar powered plane Solar Impulse-2 took off to round-the-world odyssey from Abu Dhabi

The solar-powered plane named Solar Impulse-2 on 8 March 2015 took off to round-the-world odyssey from Abu Dhabi. This will be the first round-the-world flight powered by solar power.

The aim of this round-the-world voyage is to create awareness about replacing old polluting technologies with clean and efficient technologies.

Solar Impulse -2 during its 12-leg journey of round-the-world will cover 35000 kilometer and will stop at Muscat, Oman; Ahmedabad and Varanasi, India; Mandalay, Myanmar and Chongqing and Nanjing, China.

After crossing the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii, it will fly across the US stopping in three locations namely Phoenix, and New York City at John F Kennedy airport.

In the final leg, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, it will make a stop-over in Southern Europe or North Africa before arriving back in Abu Dhabi.

Solar Impulse is expected to complete its journey of 350000 km in five months and it will be piloted by Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg.

Pilot Bertrand Piccard belongs to a family of adventure’s father Jacques Piccard was among the two people who for the first time reached the deepest place in the Ocean. Jacques achieved the feat with Don Walsh in the Trieste bathyscaphe in 1960. His grandfather, Auguste Piccard, in 1931 was the first person to take a balloon into Stratosphere.

About Solar Impulse-2
Solar Impulse is the only airplane of perpetual endurance, able to fly day and night on solar power, without a drop of fuel.

Solar Impulse-2 is a 2.3 tonne plane with top sped of 87 miles per hour (mph) and can carry just one passenger and emits precisely zero Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

Its wingspan is 72 meters and 3.5 meter wide. This length allows it to sport 17000 solar panels that help it to produce enough electricity to power the flight and to charge 633 Kilogram lithium batteries.