The Solar airplane “Solar Impulse 2” has taken off again and is now back in the air. The route now leads from Japan over the Pacific in the direction of Hawaii. This is another stop of the plane on its round-the-world trip.

Flight Without A Drop Of Gasoline

The two men Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg want to prove to the whole world that it is possible to fly around the world in an airplane without using even a drop of gasoline. The airplane “Solar Impulse 2” flies thereby only with the help of the strength of the sun. The sun charges Solar cells and with this energy, the propellers of the airplane are driven. So that this can fly also still, if no more sun shines, accumulators, thus batteries, are loaded and stored this energy. This airplane, which is very environmentally friendly and does not blow any dirt into the air, already took off in March.

Stopover In Japan

After the launch in March, everything went well at first. But because of bad weather, the plane then had to go to the ground in Japan for a stopover. It then stayed there for almost a month before taking off again. Now the solar plane is on its way across the Pacific towards Hawaii. At the controls of the plane is André Borschberg, for whom a very difficult journey awaits, and above all a very exhausting one. He is all alone and only ever wants to sleep for a maximum of twenty minutes in between. However, nothing must go wrong for him now, because the solar plane cannot land over the Pacific. If there are any problems now, the pilot has to jump with a parachute and a rescue boat and then wait in the sea for help. We hope for him that everything goes well and he can land safely on the ground again.

Explanation Of The Difficult Words

A Solar plane flies completely without gasoline or any other fuel. Only with the help of the power of the sun the propellers are driven.

The Pacific also called the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Silent Ocean or the Great Ocean, is the largest and deepest ocean on Earth. It has an area of about 35 percent of the Earth’s total surface area, or half of the Earth’s ocean area, which is more than the area of all the continents combined.

Hawaii is a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean and the 50th state of the United States since 1959. Hawaii is located 3,682 km southwest of the U.S. west coast. Hawaii includes 137 islands with a size of 16,625 km². However, most of these islands are uninhabited. Nevertheless, about 1.3 million people live in Hawaii.

Solar cells are electrical devices that usually convert sunlight directly into electrical energy.

Photo: lenm / bigstockphoto.com