Solar Impulse past point of no return

A revolutionary solar-powered aircraft was past “the point of no return” and flying over the Pacific Ocean bound for Hawaii Monday, on the most ambitious leg of its quest to circumnavigate the globe.

After a month of delays in Japan and a last-minute false start last week, mission controllers declared Solar Impulse 2 had taken off from the central Japanese city of Nagoya shortly after 3.00 am (1800 GMT Sunday).

“No Way Back! This is a one way ticket to Hawaii,” tweeted @solarimpulse. Pilot “André Borschberg has passed the point of no return and must now see this 5 days 5 nights flight through to the end”.

Around 12 hours after take-off, the aircraft was more than 1,000 km into its 7,900-km flight, according to the Solarimpulse.com website, which showed the flight expected to describe an arc between Japan and Hawaii.

“We have to follow like a corridor with no clouds,” mission initiator Bertrand Piccard told AFP.

“All of the calculations, of the trajectory, of the flight, of the altitude, of the timing, all this is made so we can fly over the layer of clouds on the third day, and also over the clouds on the fifth day,” Mr Piccard said, referring to the two days of the voyage forecast to be cloudy.