Beijing: A Swiss pilot of a solar plane has embarked on the longest leg of the first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fuel.
André Borschberg took off from Nanjing, China, at 2:39 a.m. Sunday (1839 GMT Saturday) in the Solar Impulse 2 for a five-day-five-night flight to Hawaii across the Pacific Ocean.
The journey started in March in Abu Dhabi, and the solar plane has stopped in Oman, India, Myanmar and China. The leg between Nanjing and Hawaii is the longest and most dangerous.
Borschberg and another Swiss pilot, Bertrand Piccard, are taking turns flying the single-seater Swiss plane during a five-month journey to promote renewable energy use.
The 8,175-kilometer (5,079-mile) flight from Nanjing to Hawaii is the seventh of 12 flights.
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