Solar Impulse is the only airplane of perpetual endurance, able to fly day and night on solar power, without a drop of fuel.The chances of succeeding at the first attempt to build a solar airplane capable of flying around the world were judged to be slim, but ?Solar Impulse II? an innovation partnered by Borschberg, an entrepreneur, engineer and professional pilot, Dr Piccard and supported by Masdar University (Abu Dhabi) thought it differently.

Earlier the idea of a solar-powered plane originated when Dr Bertrand Piccard?s historic balloon flight was nearly jeopardised due to its dependency on fossil fuel - of the 3.7 tonnes of liquid propane on board at take-off, only 40kg remained when the balloon landed!!!

Solar airplanes had flown before, but only during the day and without the capacity to store energy, and here is the uniqueness of this project.

The airplane powered by solar energy will take off from Abu Dhabi on a first-of-its-kind journey in the history of aviation. Piccard and Borschberg will take turns as pilots.

Team is in Abu Dhabi this month to make final preparations for five-month global flight that takes off in March.

Taking off from Abu Dhabi in March, the round-the-world journey will take over five months to complete, during which the plane will make several stops. After stopovers in Oman and India, and then continuing its journey east flying over the Great Wall of China, the plane will make two ocean crossings, with two stops in America and one in Europe, before it makes its way back to Abu Dhabi towards the end of July.

Once it is successful, air travel will enter into a new era when we talk about using renewable fuels?we all will be looking forward to this in 2015?

Happy new year to you all?

Sources :

1)    http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/solar-plane-idea-took-wing-from-balloon-flight-1.1435093

2)    http://www.solarimpulse.com/en/our-adventure/solar-impulse-2/#.VKgg8dKUdlw