Abu Dhabi: The heatwave in Saudi Arabia and high temperature along the flight path from Cairo to Abu Dhabi have delayed the final leg of Solar Impulse-2, the first solar plane making round-the-world trip.
“The heatwaves affect not only our plane but all aeroplanes … [the solar plane is more sensitive to hot weather conditions]” Bertrand Piccard, the co-pilot and co-founder of Solar Impulse-2 (Si-2) who has to fly the plane to Abu Dhabi, told Gulf News over the phone from Cairo on Tuesday.
He said the flight from Cairo to Abu Dhabi, crossing Saudi Arabia, is a challenging one. “We are waiting for cooler weather and we may have to wait for a couple of days more [to take off],” he said.
Solar Impulse team will announce the date of possible departure as soon as the engineers find a favourable weather window.
Piccard said he got perfectly well to fly the plane to Abu Dhabi. As Gulf News reported on Sunday, the plane postponed its scheduled take-off on Saturday midnight due to high winds and Piccard’s illness. He had said his stomach was upset and hence not in a position to fly for around 48 hours.
“I can’t wait to reach Abu Dhabi,” Piccard said. “I know that Masdar [the government-owned Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company] and Abu Dhabi Government have made elaborate arrangements [for the landing of Si-2).”
The Masdar-backed plane had started its epic journey from Abu Dhabi in March 2015 and reached Cairo on July 13. Andre Borschberg, the co-founder and co-pilot of Solar Impulse-2 (Si-2) flew the plane from Spain to Cairo, marking the penultimate leg of the first round-the-world solar flight. It was also the last flight of Borschberg in this epic mission, before Piccard takes the controls for the last leg to Abu Dhabi.
