Temperatures on the ground in the Middle East are reaching close to 50 degrees Celsius during the day, posing a major challenge for pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg and the rest of the Solar Impulse team, according to a Solar Impulse blog.
As the team explains, the air is less dense in high altitudes, making the air thinner. Warm temperatures exacerbate this situation. Under these conditions, the propellers on the solar-powered airplane would have to work harder to shovel the thinner air, therefore requiring more energy to fly towards its destination.
In addition, nighttime temperatures drop by close to 20 degrees Celsius, creating vertical winds that would require Solar Impulse 2 to use more energy to remain high at night. As the leg from Cairo to Abu Dhabi is expected to take 48 to 72 hours, the team has to be certain that the solar-powered airplane can fly safely at night, too. According to the blog, Solar Impulse 2 has never had to deal with such high temperatures before on its round-the-world journey.
Piccard, honourary president of the business association swisscleantech, will pilot the airplane on its final leg. While this had initially been planned for last week, the flight had to be postponed due to poor weather conditions and Piccard falling ill.