Cold front disrupts Solar Impulse flight but record set still

A cold front forecast at the destination forced the historic solar plane crossing the Pacific Ocean to divert to Japan and make a landing there on Monday night.

Although the planned 130-hour-long flight was cut short to around 40 hours, it still set a record.

"This is the longest flight ever made by a solar-powered aeroplane in terms of both duration and distance,” the Solar Impulse-2 team told Gulf News in a statement. The aeroplane has perfectly undertaken its first ever day-and-night cycle and in this regard the flight is already a success,” they said. "The cold front is too dangerous to cross, so we decided to land in Nagoya airfield, also known as Komaki airport, and wait for better weather conditions to continue the journey,” they said.

The cold front is a weather condition in which a moving mass of cold air pushes into a mass of warm air resulting in a fall in temperature. The cold front in Hawaii in the US would not have allowed the plane to land there at the end of the trip.

Asked whether the cold front in Hawaii was unexpected, the spokesperson said: "No, the cold front was always there. But we found a window through it a few days ago [and started the journey]. But that window was closed in the last hours,” Elke Neumann, a press officer at Solar Impulse, told Gulf News over the phone from the Chinese city of Nanjing from where the plane took off for Hawaii. "The plane and pilot are safe. Safety is our priority.”

She and a small team will fly to Nagoya in Japan to join André Borschberg, the pilot and CEO of Solar Impulse, who has safely landed there.

Borschberg tweeted before landing: "Beautiful night over Nagoya but a little sad at having interrupted this fantastic flight.” Still the setback has not dampened his spirit.

"I spent the entire night in #Si2, a fantastic demonstration of energy efficiency. Pioneering projects require perseverance. @bertrandpiccard and I will carry on as soon as conditions allow #RTW [Round-the-world trip,” further tweets said.

Bertrand Piccard, the co-founder of Solar Impulse, said in his tweet: "We still cannot cross bad weather with a solar aeroplane, but the Wright Brothers couldn't either!”

The solar plane attempting to circumnavigate the globe without a drop of fuel, departed from the Chinese city of Nanjing on Saturday at 10.40pm UAE time for Hawaii in the US to create a landmark in the history of aviation. The 8,172km flight spanning around 130 hours — six consecutive days and nights would have been the longest for a single pilot aeroplane ever flown with any type of aeroplane.

The flight that started from Abu Dhabi on March 9 had been waiting for favourable weather after landing in Nanjing on April 21. Now the plane has to wait in Japan for a favourable weather window to resume its Pacific crossing.
Source: Gulf News