Solar Impulse 2 is undergoing maintenance work after the aircraft's wings were damaged by wind gusts and rain while it was on the ground.

The pilots, who are attempting the first round-the-world flight powered entirely by the sun, have been holed up in Japan since having to abandon a crossing of the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii because of bad weather.

The plane "was safe in the mobile hangar. We can now do some maintenance work and wait for the next flight weather window,” the team said in a statement on the mission's official Twitter feed.

André Borschberg, one of the pilots, said the plane had suffered damage to its aileron – the hinged edge of the wing – that would take at least a week to repair.

On a video posted on the Solar Impulse website, Bertrand Piccard, the second pilot, said: "Before the team at Nagoya's airport could inflate the mobile hangar, the wing had to be protected with a cover for the rain and the sun.

"There was so much wind and gusts that this cover started to shake on the wing and damaged an aileron on the trailing edge of the wing. This will be repaired. The technical team already started to build some spare parts but it will keep us on the ground for at least one week before we can carry on and fly to Hawaii.

"It's not a big issue for the project itself but it's a little additional delay.”

Solar Impulse 2 is powered by more than 17,000 solar cells built into its wings, which at 72 metres are almost as long as that of an Airbus A380 superjumbo.

The Masdar-sponsored plane began its journey from Abu Dhabi on March 9.
Source: The Naitonal