MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Battery damage grounded SI-2 last summer after it completed eight legs in three months that saw the experimental aircraft start in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), then cross Oman, India, Myanmar, China and Japan before landing in Hawaii.
"[Pilot Andre Borschberg] just tookoff from Tulsa and flies to #Dayton without fuel," the project’s Twitter account said in a planned 17-hour flight over 650 nautical miles.
SI-2 can reach a maximum speed of 140 kilometers (87 miles) per hour. Its wingspan is 72 meters (236 feet) and the weight is only 2,300 kilograms, or 5,070 pounds, equivalent to that of a car. The plane is powered by sun energy collected by over 17,200 solar cells covering its wings, fuselage and tailplane.
The aircraft's prototype is Solar Impulse 1, which was piloted by Borschberg to conduct the world's first ever manned 26-hour solar-powered flight in July, 2010.
