The Swiss solar plane Solar Impulse which took off Saturday, May 31st, 2015 at 2:39 am local time from Nanjing, China, to cross the Pacific for Hawaii was obliged to make an intermediate landing in japan due to worsening weather conditions.
After a successful start and 44 hours of flight, breaking all the duration and distance records for a solar powered airplane, the Solar Impulse weather team observed the development to a cold front en route to Hawaii which would be too difficult to cross. During a few hours of holding position above the Japanese Sea the experts at the Mission Control Center in Monaco analyzed the situation, and took the difficult decision to divert pilot André Borschberg toward Nagoya-Komaki Airport. The Solar Impulse mission will now wait for optimal weather conditions in order to continue its flight around the world via Hawaii.
The plane performed extremely well and only the weather couldn’t match the high expectations of flying even longer on solar power.
