Abu Dhabi: The pilot of the first solar plane circumnavigating the globe will have to use an oxygen mask in the cockpit during the flight on Monday over the Himalayas from Myanmar to China.
“It is a very difficult flight, reaching an altitude of 7,300 metres,” a representative of the Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) team told Gulf News on Sunday.
The flight is scheduled to leave Mandalay in Myanmar at 3.30am local time [1am UAE time] on Monday for Chongqing in China on its fifth leg, with Bertrand Piccard in the cockpit.
The flight from Varanasi in India reached Mandalay on March 19 and was scheduled to leave for China within three days but bad weather delayed the onward flight.
The 1,375-kilometre journey to China is expected to be completed in 18 hours. “It is a challenging flight in extreme weather conditions. We expect crosswinds, clouds and cold weather. Piccard may have to use the oxygen mask for a long time,” the representative said.
From Chongqing, Si2 is scheduled to take off at 6am local time on Tuesday for Nanjing on the east coast of China near Shanghai, with André Borschberg in the cockpit in its sixth leg.
At Nanjing, Solar Impulse 2 will have the longest halt in its initial runs, while waiting for favourable weather to cross the Pacific towards the United States. The first possible time to cross the Pacific may be mid-April. The time will be used for many awareness activities on clean energy, as was done in Abu Dhabi.
Piccard and Borschberg take turns to pilot the plane on its 35,000km flight around the globe, accumulating 500 flight hours over five months to spread the message that clean technologies can be achieved through a pioneering spirit.
The zero-fuel aeroplane will stop in China, USA, northern Africa or southern Europe before returning to Abu Dhabi to complete its circumnavigation of the world.
Meanwhile an ambitious solar energy project was unveiled during the crew’s stay in Myanmar.
Piccard and Borschberg launched the project to provide solar power to thousands of villages in Myanmar, a country where 70 per cent of the population has no access to electricity. This is part of a plan to develop local solar power production for one million people in Myanmar in the next five years to improve quality of life, create economic opportunities and boost education in remote areas of the country. The project will establish solar power-charging stations that will help rural businesses. The joint partnership project was announced by Solar Impulse’s partner, Swiss Corporation ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, and PACT, an NGO.
