MANDALAY — After a ten-day delay due to poor weather conditions, Solar Impulse 2, an aircraft powered entirely by solar energy, left Mandalay for China on Monday morning.
The plane departed the Mandalay’s Tada-U Airport at 3:30 AM to head for Chongqing, southwest China.
“The flight will take around 19 hours,” Bertrand Piccard, one of the French pilots, told the media just before the departure.
Solar Impulse 2 made a landing at Mandalay’s Tada-U Airport shortly before 8 pm on March 19. Piccard and Andre Borschberg are taking turns to fly the French plane in a world record attempt at solar-powered circumnavigation of the globe.
After the stop in Chongqing, the plane will head to the eastern coastal city of Nanjing before flying across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii.
Solar Impulse 2 began its flight at Abu Dhabi on March 9, and then headed to Oman and to the Indian cities of Ahmedabad and Varanasi, before landing in Mandalay.
