Solar Impulse Engineers Reignite their Creation

The idle aircraft sits in Hawaii, impatient to do what it does best: fly using only solar power as its source of energy! Contrary to what you might think, it is not basking in the Hawaiian sun, but instead sits in a hangar at Kalaeloa airport. With the support of the Department of Education, the University of Hawaii offered to host the airplane in its hangar. It has been coated in a layer of aluminum sheet, sealed with tape, and inserted in the protected hangar to prevent it from any potential damage. It is only in the past two weeks that the aircraft has come back to life. The first Solar Impulse team members have started to slowly trickle back into the hangar as Mission Mode has slowly switched on. They are currently in Hawaii for one main purpose: to install the new batteries and to perform crucial maintenance tasks before the First Round-the-World Solar flights begin again.

Here is a short recap in case you missed the story:

During André’s 5-day and night record-breaking Pacific flight from Nagoya, Japan to Hawaii, the batteries in the aircraft overheated. How did this happen? While the aircraft was on the runway in Nagoya, the aircraft encountered harsh weather conditions. Moving forward, we decided to do a test flight before leaving for Hawaii. Having to perform a test flight followed by a mission flight had not been taken into account in the design process of the battery system, which did not allow the batteries to cool down in between the two flights. Solar Impulse is attempting a historic first - flying around the world solely relying on solar energy.

So, we found ourselves in a heated situation. We decided to take a break in the Round-the-World adventure and to take a step back and figure out what to do next with the aircraft. We removed the batteries and put Si2 to rest until the new set was ready.

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