Solar Impulse 2: Awaiting Better Weather In Nagoya, Japan

If you haven’t been following the ambitious journey of Solar Impulse 2, here’s a brief intro.

Once upon a time, two Swiss explorers Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, decided that the best way to raise global awareness on alternative energy sources is demonstration. However, instead of coming up with an impressive figure-filled PowerPoint, they instead came up with a solar plane and embarked on an Around The World Solar Flight. This “Indiana Jones” approach worked and the whole world is now following the plane’s extraordinary journey across the globe with baited breath.

With the whole flight divided into 13 legs, the plane took from Abu Dhabi on March 9^th and has since then been spotted in Oman, India, Myanmar, China and can now be found in Japan – getting ready for its 8^th leg from Nagoya to Hawaii.

The plane landed in Nagoya on May 30^th, having reached the altitude of 28’000 feet and covered a distance of 2’852 km.

Currently, Solar Impulse 2 is waiting for a good weather window to continue its journey to Hawaii. As the update reads on solarimpulse.com “The cold front is too dangerous to cross, so we have decided to land in Nagoya Airfield, also known as Komaki Airport, and wait for better weather conditions in order to continue”.

One of the other misfortunes the plane had to endure was slight damage to the wing, courtesy of strong wind gusts. The problem is not a big one, but will still cause a slight delay.

While the repairs are being made and the wait for better weather conditions continues, we want to take our chance to wish Solar Impulse well in this exciting journey and hope its landing in Hawaii is soft and timely.

For more on Solar Impulse adventure, check out our previous blogs here and here, or visit the project’s webpage.