Hawaii residents will have two opportunities to view the Solar Impulse 2, the plane attempting to travel around the world powered only by the sun, before it departs for the U.S. mainland.
The public will able to view the Solar Impulse 2 on March 26 and April 2 at Kalaeloa Airport in West Oahu, where it has been sitting since landing in July. Solar Impulse 2 pilot Andre Borschberg arrived in Hawaii after five days and nights in the air, marking the longest solar flight both by time and distance.
“There will be public visits,” said Solar Impulse 2 pilot and co-founder Bertrand Piccard. “This morning I went for coffee and a man came and said I want to see this airplane.”
On the two days — from
11 a.m. to
4 p.m. — the public can watch videos and talk to Solar Impulse 2 engineers and the ground crew.
The earliest opportunity for the plane to depart for the next flight as part of its round-the-world adventure is April 15.
Piccard will take the controls on the next flight. It will be a year since he piloted the plane.
“It’s so fantastic to fly that plane,” he said. “It is unique.”
The plane’s 236-foot wingspan was built with more than 17,000 solar cells, four electric motors and lithium batteries, replacing the need for fuel.
Piccard said the leg of the flight from Hawaii to an undetermined destination in North America is estimated to take four days. The Solar Impulse 2 team said it is keeping options open as to where the plane will land after it leaves Hawaii. Possible destinations include Vancouver, British Columbia; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and Phoenix.
Borschberg and Piccard, who are both Swiss, now are preparing to get back in their 4-by-6-1/2-foot cockpit for training flights. A Solar Impulse 2 engineer already has completed two maintenance flights — the first time the plane has been in the air since it was grounded due to its batteries overheating after the five-day flight.
“We need the training and to be brought back to speed,” Borschberg said.
The next maintenance flight for Solar Impulse 2 will be piloted by Piccard on Thursday.
The pilots said they are very grateful to the University of Hawaii and the airport for hosting them.
“This is a special stop here in Hawaii,” Borschberg said. “We were hosted here at a difficult moment and we were so welcomed. There was so much hospitality and we had so much help to make it feasible. Now the airplane is in the best condition today, after eight months of staying on the island.”
“We arrived here homeless,” Piccard said. “We arrived here with an airplane that didn’t work anymore and we were welcomed.”
“Last year in July, I was traveling along the coast with my wife and we arrived in a place where there was a gathering of a family on the beach and they invited us to have lunch with them and we stayed there. We knew nobody in the beginning and knew all of them after this hour of lunch at the beach,” Piccard said.
The pilots recently returned to Oahu: Borschberg arrived last week, while Piccard got back on Feb. 20.
“We’re extremely happy to be back,” Borschberg said.
The pilots said they hope to experience more of the island.
“We are strictly preparing, but I hope we will be ready enough to be able to take advantage of this island because I love diving, I love kitesurfing, I love paragliding and all of the people that do that because last year I met them,” Piccard said
“Hopefully we can do more but in this type of project there is always something to do,” Borschberg said.
Over the eight-month hiatus, the pilots were invited to speak at the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris.
“We were there as witnesses of the reality of today,” Piccard said. “Our position now, with Solar Impulse 2, is a motivator for society to be more modern, to be more efficient. Clean technologies bring profit, bring jobs, it’s a way to stimulate economic growth. … If all of the fans of clean energy are being quiet and don’t speak up, nothing will happen. This enthusiasm for clean technologies and energy efficiency needs to be promoted very actively.”
Borschberg said the plane is the best way to show the reliability of renewable energy technology because “you can’t cheat in an airplane.”
“We worked 12 years to be able to do it, to prove it,” Borschberg said. “We know we have an airplane that is capable of flying day and night.”
Hawaii was first of four U.S. destinations for the plane. Since leaving Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in March, the plane has traveled to Muscat, Oman; Ahmedabad and Varanasi, India; Mandalay, Myanmar; Chongqing and Nanjing, China; and Nagoya, Japan.
