Solar Impulse airplane took off from Seville to Cairo

The first solar airplane in the world, Solar Impulse 2, took off in Seville, southern Spain, in a trip over the Mediterranean Sea in order to reach Cairo, Egypt. The airliners powered exclusively by solar energy will travel around the world, in an amazing trip according to the organizers quoted by DPA.

This flight is the last but one of the airplane’s journey around the world and it is estimated that it will take 50 hours and 30 minutes. The aircraft is scheduled to land at Cairo International Airport on 13 July. The pilot Andre Borschberg, will be in control for the last time, in this trip that began almost a year ago.

Borschberg and his colleague, pilot Bertrand Piccard, conducted the flight around the world in a plane powered by solar energy, an opportunity to draw attention to the possibilities of using renewable energy sources for a wide variety of activities.

Solar Impulse 2 changed the way people use the renewable energy on June 23, becoming the first solar powered plane that crossed the Atlantic successfully. The flight from New York to Seville lasted 70 hours, almost 20 hours less than it was initially expected.

The aircraft is made of carbon fiber and has a wingspan of 72 meters. Its travel around the world began on 9 March 2015 in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and continued east to Muscat, then to India, Burma, China, Japan, USA (via Hawaii) and Spain.

The plane works by recharging due to more than 17,000 photovoltaic cells installed on its wings, which captures the solar energy.