Sun-Powered Solar Impulse 2 Resumes 12th Leg of Round-the-World Flight

The solar-powered zero-fuel Solar Impulse 2 (SI-2) plane embarked on the 12th leg of its round-the-world flight in the Midwest United States early Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Battery damage grounded SI-2 last summer after it completed eight legs in three months that saw the experimental aircraft start in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), then cross Oman, India, Myanmar, China and Japan before landing in Hawaii.

"[Pilot Andre Borschberg] just tookoff from Tulsa and flies to #Dayton without fuel," the project’s Twitter account said in a planned 17-hour flight over 650 nautical miles.

After resuming the ninth leg from Hawaii to California on April 21, pilots Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard are expected to return to Abu Dhabi, UAE, after reaching New York. The last four legs of their 15-leg flight are estimated to total nearly 300 hours.

SI-2 can reach a maximum speed of 140 kilometers (87 miles) per hour. Its wingspan is 72 meters (236 feet) and the weight is only 2,300 kilograms, or 5,070 pounds, equivalent to that of a car. The plane is powered by sun energy collected by over 17,200 solar cells covering its wings, fuselage and tailplane.

The aircraft's prototype is Solar Impulse 1, which was piloted by Borschberg to conduct the world's first ever manned 26-hour solar-powered flight in July, 2010.