Solar plane takes off in Morocco on hardest flight yet
Pilots Bertrand Piccard (right) and Andre Borschberg shake hands after an experimental solar-powered plane, Solar Impulse, landed in Rabat airport, Morocco on June 5, 2012, after a 20-hour trip from Madrid in the first transcontinental flight by a craft of its type. The solar-powered plane that last week made the world’s first inter-continental flight took off on its most difficult challenge yet on Wednesday, flying in Morocco’s desert climate. — PHOTO: AP
RABAT (AFP) – The solar-powered plane that last week made the world’s first inter-continental flight took off on its most difficult challenge yet on Wednesday, flying in Morocco’s desert climate.
Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg steered the Solar Impulse plane into the skies from Rabat airport at 0707 GMT (3.07pm Singapore time) and headed south toward the city of Ourzazate where he is expected to land around 2300 GMT if all goes well.
‘This flight will certainly be the most difficult the plane has ever undertaken due to the hot and dry nature of the climate as well as the proximity of the massive Atlas mountains’, towering up to more than 3,000m, said a statement released by organisers on Tuesday.
‘It is potentially extremely dangerous,’ said pilot Borschberg. ‘I know it is not going to be easy but I have the deep feeling that we know enough’ to make a successful landing in the desert.
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