Slovenian Starts Solo Round-the-World Flight on Ultra-Light Plane

(Reuters) -- A Slovenian biologist-environmentalist-photographer-pilot has started a round-the-world solo flight Sunday using an ultra-light plane that consumes small amount of clean unleaded fuel with the aim of promoting the protection of the environment.

Matevz Lenarčič flew out of his central European country's capital Ljubljana at 8 a.m. on a Pipistrel Virus-SW914 that weighs only 290 kilogrammes and landed nine hours later at the Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport in Tangier, Morocco, at 15:50 GMT.

The 80,000-kilometre westbound journey dubbed GreenLight WorldFlight will see Lenarcic flying to North America, South America, Antarctica, Australia, Asia, over Mount Everest, India and then back to Slovenia. He will fly over 60 countries. The Mount Everest overfly is scheduled between Feb. 24 and 29.

During the flight, he will take photographs and measure the concentration of black carbon and light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols above Antarctica, Africa and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans using an aethalometer installed on the aircraft.

Among the photographs to be taken are places with plenty of clean drinking water and places without a single drop of water.
The data will be given to climatologists to help them determine the role of biomass and fossil fuel combustion emission in climate change.

Lenarčič's team will keep the public informed of his progress via a blog that will also show his photographs.

Light aircraft manufacturer Pipistrel is among the sponsors of the GreenLight WorldFlight. The company is the builder of the Virus SW 80/100, which won the NASA contest for non-government-funded technological achievements dubbed Centennial Challenges in 2007 and 2008.

Pipistrel was also awarded NASA's Green Aviation prise in 2011 for its electric aircraft that flew 322 kilometres in less than two hours while using the equivalent in electricity of just over a half-gallon of fuel per occupant.

The Virus SW 80/100 is the most economic high speed cruiser and definitely the fastest high-wing aeroplane in its category, according to Pipistrel's website. Made from state-of-the-art composite materials, it weighs only 300 kilogrammes. It is capable of flying up to 4,572 meters high and over a distance of 1,500 kilometres. It can take off and land from short runways and produces little noise.

But the round-the-world flight with the Virus-SW914 will not be that easy for Lenarcic. He must safely operate it when flying at very high or low polar temperatures and extreme altitudes. The aircraft must remain stable at very low speeds of below 80km/h.

He must also keep fuel consumption at very low levels particularly during a 4,000-kilometre stretch since the amount of 95 octane unleaded fuel on board the small plane is very limited. At some point of the journey, he will just glide the plane. The plane can run at high speeds of close to 300km/h.