Test Flights Being Conducted In Hawaii

After being grounded by battery damage last year following a flight from Japan to Hawaii, Solar Impulse 2 is reportedly near a resumption of its attempt to fly around the world using only solar power.

On the Si2 blog, the team reports that test flights are underway in Hawaii, and the circumnavigation attempt may resume in another month or so.

“It was beautiful to fly #Si2 under the full moon tonight and I really enjoyed it. I even flew with the window open to feel the night breeze," Bertrand Piccard wrote. "My second landing was the best: a kiss landing. We call it like that because the plane touches down so smoothly that you can barely feel it.”

“I was pleased to see Bertrand Piccard flying today with #Si2. We are getting prepared for the next mission flight to West Coast and I’m happy to see the hard work from the whole team is paying off,” wrote André Borschberg.

Bertrand left Kalaeloa at 6:41am UTC time and completed his final landing at 8:08 UTC, with two landings in between. Following his training flight last week, the goal of this flight was to perform night traffic patterns, where the engineers in Monaco focused on monitoring takeoff and landing. The weather for the flight in Hawaii was clear, allowing a calm Si2 flight, in order to continue preparations for the ultimate Pacific Crossing.

(Image from file)

FMI: Blog