Pilot prepares for flight in solar-powered craft

NANJING, China — It takes a Boeing 747 about 10 hours and 36,000 gallons of fuel to fly from eastern China to Hawaii. As soon as Tuesday, Andre Borschberg will attempt the same flight in a hightech, sun-powered aircraft that resembles a dragonfly. He’ll do it over five days, without a drop of fuel.

No one before has attempted a solar-powered flight over such a large expanse of ocean — 5,070 miles. If bad weather or other problems force him to ditch his Solar Impulse plane, Mr. Borschberg will have only his wits and a life raft to save him.

Mr. Borschberg acknowledges the dangers. So does his fellow Swiss adventurer, Bertrand Piccard, who flew the singleseat plane to China in April and is slated to fly it from Hawaii to Phoenix later this month.

“Yes, we are nervous. I am nervous also,” Mr. Piccard said in an interview in Nanjing. “But more than anything, we are impressed. We’re in awe of the enormous distance over water that we have to do: Andre for the first part, and me for the second part.”

Mr. Piccard and Mr. Borschberg hope to be the first pilots to fly a solarpowered plane around the world. After 12 years of planning, networking and fundraising, they launched their tag-team expedition in March, flying from the United Arab Emirates to Oman, and then on to India; Myanmar; Chongqing, China; and Nanjing.

The lesson? “Never underestimate the power of technology development,” Mr. Piccard said. “We should embrace it.”