Solar aircraft round-the-world route announced

The first solar-powered plane able to fly day and night will land in 12 locations across the world and travel 35,000km in the first attempt to fly around the globe without using fuel derived from hydrocarbons.

Mission pilots and Solar Impulse founders Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will share flying duties during the flight, which they said aims ‘to demonstrate how clean technologies and a pioneering spirit can change the world.’

Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) will take-off from Abu Dhabi in late February or early March and return by late July or early August 2015. The route includes stops in Muscat, Oman; Ahmedabad and Varanasi, India; Mandalay, Myanmar; and Chongqing and Nanjing, China.

After crossing the Pacific Ocean via Hawaii, the 72m-wingspan single-seater aircraft will fly across the USA stopping in Phoenix, Arizona and New York City at JFK Airport. A location in the Midwest will be decided dependent on weather conditions. After crossing the Atlantic, the final legs include a stop-over in Southern Europe or North Africa before arriving back in Abu Dhabi.