Solar Impulse 2 passed its first maintenance flight Friday, successfully testing newly installed technologies, including its stabilization and cooling system.
The Swiss-built single-seat aircraft, designed to be the first plane to fly around the world using only solar power, took off from Kalaeloa Airport in Hawaii, flew more than 8,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, and then returned to the airfield after an hour and a half of flight, according to a blog post from Solar Impulse.
Solar Impulse 2 began its 21,700 mile, 14-leg trip across the world in Abu Dhabi last March. The plane has flown eight legs at a distance of more than 12,400 miles thus far. The last leg flown, a 4,481 mile trip from Nagoya, Japan to Hawaii, ended July 3 with Solar Impulse 2 becoming the first solar aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean.
Unfortunately for the Solar Impulse team, all of the news wasn’t positive following the trip to Hawaii. It was discovered after the flight that the plane’s batteries had overheated, and that they would have to undergo repair and delay the journey until this spring.
The aircraft is expected to continue its journey with a trip from Hawaii to Phoenix this April.
Psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and investor and entrepreneur André Borschberg take turns piloting the 5,070 pound carbon-fiber aircraft. The two Swiss men co-founded Solar Impulse to demonstrate the capabilities of clean technologies.
