Around the world in a solar airplane

Solar Impulse 2 is the first of its kind to have achieved an oceanic crossing

Solar Impulse 2 is the first of its kind to have achieved an oceanic crossing

The dream of the two pilots and founders of SolarImpulse2, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, was to fly around the world in a solar aircraft in order to promote the use of renewable energies for a better quality of life. Together with their support team of 60 people, they constructed an airplane the size of a Boeing 747 and the weight of a car, which is able to fly day and night, without any fuel, using only energy stored in its batteries.

Their vision of this round-the-world flight will be completed in a total of about ten stages. The solar aircraft will travel 35.000 km from Abu Dhabi (departure city), to India, Myanmar, China, Japan, U.S.A and back to Europe and Abu Dhabi. The endeavor started on March 2015 and up to now, the aircraft has already covered more than 20.000 km. Last July, Solar Impulse 2 became the first solar airplane to accomplish an oceanic crossing, as it flew for 5 consecutive days across the Pacific (from Nagoya, Japan, to Honolulu, Hawaii). This historic and record-breaking flight was achieved by André Borschberg, proving that clean technologies can be used to achieve incredible goals. Currently, the solar airplane is flying across the North American continent, with New York City to be the final destination before the next oceanic crossing, that of the Atlantic Ocean.