Solar Impulse breaks a new record

Ahmedabad – March 10, 2015:  After an eleven hour pit-stop in Muscat (Oman) Bertrand Piccard took the controls from André Borschberg and continued onwards over the Arabian sea to India. 

Solar Impulse landed in Ahmedabad (India) in the state of Gujarat at 11:25pm local time (5:55pm GMT) after 13 hours and 20 minutes of flying reaching an altitude of 8,534 meters and a ground speed of roughly 100 knots (185 kilometres per hour) .

This is the longest  distance ever flown by a solar airplane in aviation history, a straight-line distance of 1,468 km.

The Solar Impulse team will stay in Ahmedabad for 4 days. The next leg of their round the world journey will take them to Varanasi (India) followed by a leg to Mandalay (Myanmar) before reaching China. The pilots will continue to take turns flying the single-seater aircraft.

 

Solar impulse 2, the Swiss solar aircraft is capable of flying for several days and nights in a row, essential for crossing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The aircraft will travel 35,000 kilometres around the world in 25 days over a period of around 5 months.

After China Solar impulse 2 will cross the Pacific Ocean, the USA and the Atlantic ocean, followed by a stop in Southern Europe or North Africa before completing its circumnavigation of the globe in Abu Dhabi.

The Solar Impulse team hope to build awareness for clean technologies as they travel around the world.