Solar Impulse Departs Myanmar For China

Flying at high altitude for most of the journey, Piccard will also need to use additional oxygen.

The 1,375-kilometre route is expected to take around 18 hours.

If the plane flies direct it will cross over a remote region of Myanmar's border with China where intense fighting has broken out between predominantly ethnic Chinese Kokang rebels and Myanmar's military.

The fighting has forced tens of thousands of refugees to flood into neighbouring Yunnan province.

Earlier this month Beijing mobilised fighter jets to patrol its side of the border after a bomb, apparently from a Myanmar warplane, landed in a sugar plantation in Chinese territory killing five.

The team behind Solar Impulse 2, which has more than 17,000 solar cells built into its wings, hopes to promote green energy with its circumnavigation attempt.

Ridiculed by the aviation industry when it was first unveiled, the venture has since been hailed around the world, including by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

Muscat was the first of the 12 planned stops on the plane's maiden journey around the world from Abu Dhabi, with a total flight time of around 25 days spread over five months.

From Oman the plane flew to the Indian city of Ahmedabad before heading to Varanasi and then Mandalay.

From Chongqing it will depart for the eastern coastal city of Nanjing before embarking on the most arduous leg of its journey, an 8,172-kilometre, 120-hour odyssey across the Pacific to Hawaii.
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