First 'round-the-world solar flight' to make stops in Ahmedabad, Varanasi

The Solar Impulse 2, which aims to become the first plane to circumnavigate the globe using only the power of the sun to drive its four propellers, will stop in India, China and the United States in a historic journey set to begin in February, 2015.

The lightweight Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft's founders and pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg plan to start and finish their round-the-world bid from Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates, over the course of about five months, Stuff.co.nz reported.

The first leg will be a short hop to the Omani capital, Muscat, then across the Arabian Sea to Ahmedabad and Varanasi in India, from where it will be on to Mandalay, Myanmar, and Chongqing and Nanjing in China and then will head across the vast Pacific Ocean, bound for Hawaii, after which it'll be on to Phoenix and New York's biggest airport, John F. Kennedy International.

There is only one seat in the plane, so the layovers will give the pilots a chance to swap places and engage with local communities along the way, to which Piccard quipped that it's a little difficult to switch in the air, which means they will make some stopovers.

Some legs of the trip, such as over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, could mean five or six straight days of flying.

Borschberg predicted the plane would begin its journey from Abu Dhabi around February 27 to March 1.