The guys from Solar Impulse have just revealed the record winning route, which they intend to travel by the new and improved Solar Impulse 2. The plane will not use any fuel, which will make it the first ever solar-powered around the world trip in history.
Following the developments and updates around Solar Impulse have been quite a remarkable adventure. Every time the two guys, Betrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg announced the making of their first prototype, the news around each of the achievements that they reached circulated the net in no time. Their first flight, the success and lessons, then the making of Solar Impulse 2, all these were granted with enormous attention.
And just when we think that there is nothing that will come from these guys that can manage to impress us more than the previous news, this is when a new announcement comes. This time the guys revealed that the up-coming highly anticipated 100% solar powered flight of Solar Impulse 2 will take of from Abu Dhabi some time in late February or early March 2015.
The solar flight will cover 21,748 miles and it will be broken into 12 stages. With an average speed between 30 and 60 miles per hour it is expected that the journey will be complete in just over 5 months. The stops will be in Muscat (Oman), Ahmedabad and Varanasi (India), Mandalay (Myanmar) and Chongqing and Nanjing (China). The plane will then fly across the Pacific Ocean, making stops in at least three U.S. cities including Phoenix, New York City, and one Midwestern city. Then again it will take off to cross the Atlantic and return to Abu Dhabi, with a stop in between somewhere in Southern Europe or North Africa.
The news is super exciting, not only because this will be the first ever around-the-world 100% solar powered trip by plane, but also because it marks a very important milestone for the whole field of green renewable technologies.
We will keep following the updates from Solar Impulse, so do watch out for the next incredible thing coming from the Swiss duo- I expect that to be the announcement of the take-off date.
Image (c) Solar Impulse
