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Around the World Solar Flight Just Suffered a Small Setback

Heavy wind gusts damaged the Solar Impulse 2 while on the ground in Nagoya, Japan, delaying its attempt to fly around the world powered entirely by the sun.
Image via EPA

A bold experiment in zero-emissions aviation suffered a small setback this week when a Swiss solar plane attempting to fly around the world sustained damage to its wing, according to the Associated Press.

After taking off from Nanjing, China on Saturday, Solar Impulse 2 was force to abandon its flight to Hawaii, the longest leg of its journey, on Monday evening due to bad weather. The plane landed in Nagoya, Japan and, while on the ground, suffered the wing damage due to heavy winds and rain.

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Pilot André Borschberg explained that before the plane could be protected by an inflatable hanger, ground crew installed a protective cover over the plane.

"There was so much wind and gusts that this cover started to shake on the wing and damaged an aileron on the trailing edge of the wing," Bertrand Piccard, the head of the project, said in a video. "It's not a big issue for the project itself but it's a little additional delay."

Ailerons are mechanisms that help a pilot control an aircraft during flight.

The Solar Impulse 2 is a single-seat plane powered entirely by 17,000 solar cells built into its wings, which are longer than the wings of a Boeing 747. The cells charge more than 2,000 pounds of lithium batteries.

Borschberg took off from Abu Dhabi on March 9th for the first of twelve legs in what is a nearly 22,000-mile journey.

Repairs, he said, will take about one week. Meteorologists are looking for a four-day window of good weather before allowing Borschberg another chance at his journey to Hawaii.

Related: Solar-powered Swiss plane launches historic trip around the world