WATCH ABOVE: A Swiss company is pushing the boundaries in air travel and alternative energy. Its plane has completed the first leg of a journey around the world, powered only by the sun’s rays. Eric Sorensen reports.
ABU DHABI, Uae – A Swiss solar-powered plane has taken off from Abu Dhabi, marking the start of the first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fuel.
READ MORE: New version of solar plane set for round-the-world flight in 2015
Solar Impulse founder Andre Borschberg was at the controls Monday morning.
WATCH: A single seat 2300 kilogram solar-powered airplane, Solar Impulse-2, took off at 7:12am local Abu Dhabi time (11:12 PM EST on Sunday, March 8).
Borschberg will trade off piloting with Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard.
They say their aim is to create awareness about replacing “old polluting technologies with clean and efficient technologies.”
The Si2 aircraft, propelled solely by the sun’s energy, is a single-seater made of carbon fiber and has 17-thousand-248 solar cells that supply the plane with renewable energy.
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