Solar plane takes off for Chinese coast
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Solar Impulse 2 took off before dawn Tuesday for the sixth leg of a round-the-world journey promoting renewable energy, after a three-week stop-over in the western city of Chongqing due to bad weather.
The zero-fuel airplane rose from the runway at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport on an estimated 17-hour, 1,190-kilometre flight to the city of Nanjing, organisers wrote in an online statement.
Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard was flying the ultralight, ultra-efficient craft at 3,300 feet, and will not go above 12,000 feet during this leg because of crosswinds and clouds at higher altitudes, organisers said.
Piccard's partner in the 150-million-dollar Solar Impulse effort, Andre Borschberg, had been scheduled to pilot the single-seater plane to Nanjing but instead went back to Switzerland "to make sure he is fully operational for our big challenge: the Pacific," as Picard tweeted.
Borschberg was reportedly suffering from migraine symptoms and a skin condition.
Piccard elected to do both Chinese stages as Borschberg, the engineer of the partnership, wants to do the five-day, five-night crossing to Hawaii.
The team will stop in Nanjing for at least 10 days, checking over the aircraft and running through a training programme ahead of the first Pacific leg.
