A Swiss solar-powered plane took off yesterday from Abu Dhabi at the start of the first-ever attempt to fly around the world without using a drop of fuel.

Solar Impulse founder André Borschberg was at the controls of the single-seater when it took off from the Al Bateen Executive Airport.

Borschberg will swap piloting duties with Solar Impulse co-founder Bertrand Piccard during stopovers.

The Swiss pilots say their aim is to create awareness about replacing “old polluting technologies with clean and efficient technologies.”

The plane was expected to reach its first destination − Muscat, Oman − after about 10 hours of flight.

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

The lightweight Solar Impulse 2, a larger version of a single-seat prototype that first flew five years ago, is made of carbon fibre and has 17,248 solar cells built into the wing that supply the plane with renewable energy.

The solar cells recharge four lithium polymer batteries. The company says the plane has a 72-metre wingspan, larger than that of a Boeing 747,but only weighs about as much as a car at around 2,300 kilograms.

The plane has a 72-metre wingspan, larger than that of a Boeing 747, but only weighs about as much as a car at around 2,300 kilograms

The plane in June made an inaugural flight of two hours and 17 minutes above western Switzerland, just two months after it was unveiled last year.

After Oman, the plane will head to India, where it will make two stops, then to China and Burma before heading across the Pacific and stopping in Hawaii.

Then it will head to Phoenix, Arizona, and New York’s biggest airport, John F. Kennedy International.

The path across the Atlantic will depend on the weather and could include a stop in southern Europe or Morocco before ending in Abu Dhabi.

The two pilots are expected to return to Abu Dhabi in late July or even August.

Swiss pilot André Borschberg (right) smiles with his compatriot pilot Bertrand Piccard before flying the Solar Impulse 2. Photo: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

Borschberg and Piccard say they want to push politicians, celebrities and private citizens to “confront the Conference on Climate Change of the United Nations, which will define the new Kyoto protocol in December 2015 in Paris”.

'Miracles can be achieved with renewables such as solar power,' Piccard, who also made the first non-stop circumnavigation of the globe in a balloon in 1999, said.

'We want to show we can fly day and night in an aircraft without a drop of fuel,' he said

Solar Impulse supporter Prince Albert of Monaco was present at the Monaco control centre during take-off.

The UAE-based Masdar, the Abu Dhabi government’s clean-energy company, is a key sponsor of the flight.

Additional sponsors include Omega, Google and Moet Hennessey, among others.