Solar Impulse-2 takes off for Varanasi from Ahmedabad

March 18, 2015

Ahmedabad

The world’s only ‘zero-fuel’ aircraft ‘Solar Impulse-2’ today took off from here for the holy city of Varanasi as a part of its round-the-world trip.

Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg flew the aircraft from here at 7.18 AM local time. The flight was delayed by about two hours from its scheduled departure, said a press release from the SI-2 team.

“Andre Borschberg and Si2 are airborne in India, flying from Ahmedabad to Varanasi, entirely Powered By The Sun,” SI-2 team said in a tweet today.

“The tent hosting Si2 in Ahmedabad is now empty and the solar airplane on its way to Varanasi,” it further tweeted.

The globe-trotting SI-2 landed at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport here on March 10, after a nearly 15-hour flight from Muscat.

Borschberg, the project’s co-founder, and co-pilot and project President Bertrand Piccard spent over a week in the city during the plane’s stopover here.

The aircraft began its journey on March 9 from Abu Dhabi.

Swiss pilot Piccard had flown the plane from Muscat to Ahmedabad, while Borschberg today flew the world’s first solar-powered aircraft to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

From Varanasi, the SI-2 is scheduled to fly to Mandalay in Myanmar, Chongqing and Nanjing in China and thereafter to the US.


Custom issues

Betrand Piccard, one of the pilots of Solar Impulse was blocked at Ahmedabad airport to get a stamp in his passport. He had hours long discussion on this issue. The Solar team in Ahmedabad was meanwhile waiting for Piccard to get his passport stamped. When arriving from Oman, Betrand did not go through customs. He was trying to solve this issue since a few days. In the afternoon today, Betrand and his team raised this issue on twitter through number of tweets. The team Solar Impulse received support from number of twitter handles immediately against what it seemed like ‘red tap’ regime of Customs.

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