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Solar-powered aircraft makes stopover in Myanmar's Mandalay

Xinhua, March 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered aircraft, arrived at Mandalay, the second largest city of Myanmar, on Thursday from northern India, as a part of its around-the-world trip, state-run Myanmar Radio and TV said.

The solar Impulse 2 (Si2), piloted by Bertrand Piccard, landed at Mandalay airport at 7:51 p.m. local time (1321 GMT).

It will be the 4th stopover of Si2 after taking off from Adu Dhabi airport of the United Arab Emirates on March 9.

During the visit, around 1,000 students from surrounding universities in Mandalay will have the chance to meet the pilots of the aircraft and learn about the plane and renewable energy.

The aircraft had landed in India's Varanasi on Wednesday after days of stopover in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad waiting for flight clearance.

The Si2 is the brainchild of Piccard, a psychiatrist who flew around the world in a hot-air balloon in 1999, and former Swiss fighter pilot Andre Borschberg.

Piccard and Borschberg are taking turns flying the aircraft on a journey which is expected to take about five months.

The first global flight of the plane is aimed at promoting clean energy and environmental protection.

Si2 is slated to make 12 stops during its 35,000-km journey, in which Myanmar is the only southeast Asian stop among the planned landings in China, the United States and southern Europe or northern Africa. Endi