Solar Impulse’s Five-Day Flight From Japan to Hawaii

Solar Impulse 2 - Solar Plane Completes Record 120-Hour Flight Across Pacific!

A solar powered plane has successfully completed a record-breaking five-day nonstop solo flight across the Pacific Ocean.

The Solar Impulse is the first aircraft to fly day and night without any fuel from Japan to Hawaii.

Its Swiss pilot André Borschberg was attempting to circumnavigate the globe with an aircraft powered only by the sun’s energy.

And to top it all, he could only sleep for 20 minute bursts in the unheated and unpressurized cockpit.

His co-pilot and fellow Swiss Bertrand Piccard is expected to take over the next leg from Honolulu to Phoenix, Arizona.

Solar Impulse 2 - Solar Plane Completes Record 120-Hour Flight Across Pacific! - How it works

Source: Euronews

The flight combined energy collection with stored power

Flying through the night required more than sunlight at the moment of flight; the aircraft’s energy system had to carry power forward from daytime. That makes the Japan-to-Hawaii leg an endurance and systems story. The article’s next-leg forecast belongs to the 2015 expedition report and should not be mistaken for a current flight schedule.

Update, 2016: the journey was completed

The round-the-world attempt was completed the following year. Solar Impulse 2 landed back in Abu Dhabi on 26 July 2016, completing 17 legs and about 43,041 kilometres (26,744 miles) in 23 days of flying without fuel. Borschberg’s five days and nights over the Pacific stood as the longest solo flight by duration.

Sources: Live Science, July 2016: Solar plane completes historic round-the-world flight

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