The Solar Impulse team announced on Monday in Beijing that its bid to make a non-stop solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a plane powered only by sunlight was stopped short because of bad weather.
Andre Borschberg, a 62-year-old former Swiss air force pilot, said he took off from Nanjing in eastern China at 2.45am on Sunday to start a six-day journey to the islands of Hawaii.
He however said he had to stop because the weather window toward Hawaii has deteriorated.
The pilot said because of the deterioration, he decided to make an intermediate landing in Nagoya.
He said: “Everything we could do has been done, the weather we cannot control, this is what exploration is about.”
Borschberg said since the beginning of the round-the-world journey in Abu Dhabi on March 9, he and Piccard had been taking turns piloting the lightweight aircraft Solar Impulse 2.
He said the Pacific leg of their journey had been delayed for more than a month by weather and safety concerns.
Borschberg said if the plane could make it to Hawaii, he and his partner, Piccard, planned to fly through the US and then across the Atlantic Ocean.
He said the 12 years programme was aimed at raising awareness about climate change and green energy solutions.
Borschberg said the Solar Impulse 2, powered by four propellers with more than 17,000 solar cells installed on its wings, was expected to make 12 stops in its flight around the world.
It would spend about 25 days in the air over the course of five months.
He said his partner, Piccard, was known for making the world’s first non-stop trip around the world in a hot air balloon in 1999.
dpa/NAN.
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