Solo flight in solar plane sets off on longest leg to Hawaii

BEIJING -- A Swiss pilot of a solar plane embarked Sunday on the longest leg of the first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fuel.

Andre Borschberg took off from Nanjing, China, early Sunday in the Solar Impulse 2 for a flight across the Pacific Ocean expected to last six days and five nights, or at least 130 hours. The journey started in March in Abu Dhabi, and the solar plane has stopped in Oman, India, Myanmar and China. The 5,079-mile flight from Nanjing to Hawaii is the seventh of 12 flights and the longest and most dangerous.

Borschberg and another Swiss pilot, Bertrand Piccard, have been taking turns flying the single-seater Swiss plane during a five-month journey to promote renewable energy use.

"This is the moment of truth," Borschberg, 62, said before takeoff.

After Hawaii, the plan is for Piccard to pilot the aircraft on to Phoenix.