Solar Impulse 2 Embarks on Historic Transatlantic Flight Without Fuel
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The Solar Impulse 2 took off from JFK Airport in New York early this morning en route to Seville, Spain, which would all be routine were it not for the fact that this particular plane carries no fuel and runs instead on solar power.
The ambitious voyage across the Atlantic is expected to take four days and upon completion will mark the first solo transatlantic crossing using a solar-powered plane in history.
The single-seater aircraft, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 and weighs as much as a minivan, is equipped with 17,000 solar cells and stores some of the energy in lithium-ion batteries which help keep it aloft at nighttime. It is being piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, who will only take short naps throughout the duration of the journey.
“Goodbye #NewYork! Now looking forward to the vast expanse of the #Atlantic Ocean and reaching Europe in a few days,” Piccard tweeted, shortly after lifting off, posting a photo of New York’s skyline.
The journey is one of the final and most difficult legs of a mission to circumnavigate the globe in an effort to promote the potential of renewable energy.
The Solar Impulse 2 began its historic attempt in March of 2015 in Abu Dhabi, and broke the record for longest uninterrupted sun-powered flight when it successfully traveled from Japan to Hawaii in five days. Shortly thereafter, the experimental aircraft ran into battery problems, which forced it to make a 9-month stopover in Hawaii, which is admittedly far from the worst place in the world to be stuck.
The flight to Seville is the 15th leg of the Solar Impulse 2’s arduous journey and is expected to be its penultimate one, before it flies back to where it began in Abu Dhabi. As of now, the plane has spent a total of approximately 390 hours in the air and has traversed 18,540 miles.
