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SCIENCEThursday 16 July 2015

Solar plane suspends journey in Hawaii after battery damage

CALEB JONES In this July 3, 2015, file photo, ground crew push the Solar Impulse 2, a solar powered airplane, towards the hangar after landingat
Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) - A team the Kalaeloa Airport in Kapolei, Hawaii. Associated Press
trying to fly a solar-pow-
ered plane around the lulu, on July 3. His voyage “Solar Impulse is attempt- and charge batteries. The speed is about 28 mph,
world said Wednesday it of nearly 118 hours from ing a historic first of flying plane ran on stored energy though that can double
is suspending the journey Nagoya, Japan, broke the around the world only on at night. during the day when the
in Hawaii after the plane record for the world’s lon- solar energy,” the pilots The aircraft took off in sun’s rays are strongest.
suffered battery damage gest nonstop solo flight, his said in a statement. “And March from Abu Dhabi, the The carbon-fiber aircraft
during its record-breaking team said. while Solar Impulse has capital of the United Arab weighs more than 5,000
flight to the islands. completed eight legs, cov- Emirates, then made stops pounds, or about as much
The Solar Impulse team said ering nearly half of the jour- in Oman, Myanmar and as a minivan or midsize
in a news release that it will ney, setbacks are part of China. It then made an un- truck.
continue the attempt to the challenges of a project planned stop for nearly a The airplane will be housed
circumnavigate the globe, which is pushing techno- month in Japan after high in a University of Hawaii
but irreversible damage logical boundaries to the winds damaged a wing. hangar at the Kalaeloa
caused by overheating limits.” The trans-Pacific leg was airport on Oahu while re-
batteries has grounded The wings of Solar Impulse the riskiest part of the pairs are made. The team
the flight until at least April. 2, which stretch wider than plane’s global travels, as says it will also research
The batteries aboard So- those of a Boeing 747, are there was nowhere for it to and test other cooling
lar Impulse 2 overheated equipped with 17,000 solar land in an emergency. methods to prevent more
on the first day of its trip cells that power propellers The plane’s ideal flight overheating.q
from Japan to Hawaii, and
there was no way to cool
down the system, the team
said. The company says
there was no weakness
with the technology, but
the team didn’t anticipate
temperature fluctuations
associated with rapid alti-
tude changes in a tropical
climate.
Pilot Andre Borschberg
and his single-seat aircraft
landed at Kalaeloa, a
small airport outside Hono-