HAWAII // Solar Impulse 2 has resumed its attempt to circumnavigate the world using only the power of the Sun.
Just after 8.15pm UAE time on Thursday evening, pilot Bertrand Picard lifted the Masdar-sponsored plane from the runway at Oahu’s Kalaeloa Airport in Hawaii.
“#Si2 has just taken off to [San Francisco] with @BertrandPiccard at the commands. The adventure is back on!” tweeted the mission’s organisers.
“Have a great flight. Enjoy it. Don’t forget to come down,” shouted Andre Borschberg, the co-pilot for the mission from the side of the runway as he watched the aircraft lift off.
Piccard is expected to spend roughly three days flying the single seat, lightweight aircraft to California, landing at Moffett Airfield in Mountain View, south-east of San Francisco.
For the past week, Solar Impulse crew had waited for an ideal time for the plane to proceed to the next leg of its journey from Hawaii to the US mainland.
Windy conditions in Hawaii resulted in limited opportunities for take-off, a crew official said.
Forecasts predicted light winds, but just before the scheduled take-off at 4pm in Hawaii, the winds picked up and the aircraft had to be returned to the hangar.
The winds soon died down and the launch went ahead.
Mission director Raymond Clerc said the 4,000 kilometre trip would take an estimated 62 hours.
“Plus, minus three to four hours, so it could be a very short one, as little as 58 hours,” he said. “We are very happy to have this window so early in the season. We were ready to fly from the 15th of April.”
Solar Impulse 2 was grounded for nine months in Hawaii after suffering critical heat-related damage to its batteries during the previous leg of its round-the-world flight, in which Borschberg completed a historic five-day, 118 hour, 7,200km journey from Nagoya, Japan.
Since February, crew had run 13 test flights, including maintenance flights to show the plane’s new cooling system was functioning before the resumption of its Pacific Ocean crossing.
“(Picard) has been preparing himself for a long time, for about the last five to six weeks in Hawaii,” said Mr Clerc. “A lot of training with this aircraft, as well as other aircraft to practice his pilot skills.”
The mission began its journey in Abu Dhabi last March and is aiming to complete its solar-powered circumnavigation of the Earth this summer.
Emirati Hasan Al Redaini was in Hawaii for take-off, and is working with the Solar Impulse team as the plane continues its journey.
“We are in mission mode and it’s been a long wait for the take off. We are looking forward to continuing our journey and spreading the message on the viability of renewable energy which Masdar and Abu Dhabi endorse through partnering with Solar Impulse.”
esamoglou@thenational.ae
