All good things come to an end. Andre Borschberg's epic five-day, five-night flight made history on July 3 and the date has now been officially named by the state of Hawaii as Solar Impulse Day.
Happiness at the accomplishment was overflowing within the team, and their cheers echoed all around the world.
Following the successful 118-hour flight, Solar Impulse 2 underwent a detailed check-up, maintenance and modification inspection to account for the fatigue suffered by the plane in the harsh conditions that included extreme weather, the duration of the flight and the unexpected battery overheating, among many other challenges.
The high stakes were welcomed by the team as making our adventure of exploration more worthwhile.
Unfortunately, the rapid ascent and descent in the first few hours of the flight and over-insulation caused the batteries to overheat and consequently suffered irreversible damage.
Regrettably, the plane cannot be repaired in time. We need as much solar energy as we did crossing the Pacific to complete consecutive day and night flights across the Atlantic.
Hence, the plane is grounded in Hawaii at Kalaeloa airport, where it will undergo repairs. The team will study options for cooling and heating systems capable of withstanding long flights.
I hope we will continue our journey in early spring next year and complete Solar Impulse's circumnavigation of the world from where it all started in Abu Dhabi and be welcomed by Masdar, its host partner, to celebrate the true success of this attempt and prove the viability of clean technology.
The team and pilots, while in good spirits, are disappointed.
Yet these obstacles enabled us to learn and strive to achieve what has never been done before. We have a really great team who are all advocates of this message and are Solar Impulse ambassadors to the world.
We’ve had our ups and downs together along this journey, which strengthened our bonds. We’ve become a family and we are all looking forward to overcoming this obstacle and
moving forward in this endeavour to reach our final goal. As for me, I’ll be wrapping up in Hawaii and heading back to Abu Dhabi. It has been a long journey and I am looking forward to returning to my family, friends and colleagues.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
Hasan Al Redaini, 25, works for group communications at Mubadala. He is travelling with the Solar Impulse team to assist in solar energy lectures and demonstrations in each of the 12 countries the team is visiting.
*Follow Hasan on Instagram and Twitter at @HasanRtw
