Solar Impulse 2 takes off for round-the-world flight — in pictures

Solar Impulse 2 crew members prepare for take-off.

Media and guests await the Solar Impulse 2 take-off.

Solar Impulse founder André Borschberg was at the controls of the single-seater when it took off from the Al Bateen Executive Airport.

Mr Borschberg will trade off piloting with Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard during the 12 stopovers on a journey that will take months to complete.

The plane is expected to reach its first destination — Muscat, Oman — after about 10 hours of flight.

Some legs of the trip, such as over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, will mean five or six straight days of flying solo.

The lightweight Solar Impulse 2, a larger version of a single-seat prototype that first flew five years ago, is made of carbon fibre and has 17,248 solar cells built into the wing that supply the plane with renewable energy.

The plane has a 72-meter wingspan, larger than that of the Boeing 747, but weighs about as much as a car at around 2,300 kilograms.

The plane in June made an inaugural flight of two hours and 17 minutes above western Switzerland, just two months after it was unveiled.

After Oman, the plane will head to India, where it will make two stops, then to China and Myanmar before heading across the Pacific and stopping in Hawaii.

Then it will head to Phoenix, Arizona, and New York. The path across the Atlantic will depend on the weather and could include a stop in southern Europe or Morocco before coming back to Abu Dhabi.

The UAE-based Masdar, the Abu Dhabi government’s clean-energy company, is a key sponsor of the flight. Additional sponsors include Omega, Google and Moet Hennessey, among others. Marwan Maamani / AFP Photo

A Swiss solar-powered plane took off from Abu Dhabi early Monday, marking the start of the first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fuel. All photos by Christopher Pike / The National unless specified