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IPFS News Link • Transportation: Air Travel

That Solar Plane Fried Its Batteries, But It's Not Done Yet

• http://www.wired.com, Alex Davies

"Obstacle, or hurdle, is the right word," says André Borschberg, one of two pilots making the amazing journey. "Not a failure."

Still, Borschberg and his co-pilot Bertrand Piccard are disappointed to find themselves waylaid in Hawaii after frying the plane's 2,077-pound battery pack during an epic five-day flight from Japan to Hawaii. Solar Impulse 2, which has the wingspan of a jetliner, will remain in a hanger at Kalaeloa Airport on O'ahu until a fresh pack can be installed in April.

"It will be a flight around the world in two years instead of one," Piccard says.

The flight has been more than a decade in the making, and has included several shorter, but no less impressive, flights in a smaller prototype. The big event started March 9 in Abu Dhabi. Things went swimmingly until May 30, when Borschberg tried to fly from China to Honolulu. A nasty cold front forced him to land in Nagoya, Japan, where the team spent a month waiting for the weather to clear.


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