Around the World in 12 Solar-powered Legs

An adventure with an ecological mission: Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg are on a journey around the world with the solar airplane 'Solar Impulse 2'. The two wish to demonstrate how clean, green technologies can play a big role in changing the world. Follow their trip!

Autor*in Anna Rees, 03.30.15

An adventure with an ecological mission: Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg are on a journey around the world with the solar airplane ‘Solar Impulse 2’. The two wish to demonstrate how clean, green technologies can play a big role in changing the world. Follow their trip!

The solarplane’s voyage has been broken up into 12 legs, the first of which began on 9 March this year, journeying from Abu Dhabi to Muscat, Oman in 13 hours. Since then, the team has travelled to India and is currently in Myanmar, having just completed leg four before travelling to China, the US, Europe, Africa and back to Abu Dhabi.

According to ExtremeTech, ”Solar Impulse 2 has 17,248 solar panels covering the wings, which can soak in enough power during the day to keep the four propellers going all night. Power will be stored in the craft’s lithium-ion batteries for use at that time as well. The batteries take up about a quarter of Solar Impulse 2’s 5,000-pound heft. That’s about the same as a midsize sedan, which is light for a plane and good for overall efficiency. Solar Impulse 2 can reach speeds of nearly 100 mph, but the plan is to limit speed to about 60 mph to get a little more distance out of the batteries.”

Keep track of the plane’s journey via the website and find all their is to know about the plane itself and the goals of the mission.

This article has been translated, in part, from the original that was published on our German platform by Sarah-Indra.

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