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Solar Impulse 2 has left Myanmar for China on the fifth leg of its round-the-world flight.

The solar-powered plane, with Bertrand Piccard at the controls, left Mandalay in Myanmar (Burma) just after 3AM local time on Monday, March 30, and is heading for Chongqing in China.

The intention is to make a brief stop there, and then try to reach Nanjing on the east coast of China.

This would set up Solar Impulse 2 for the first of its big ocean crossings – a five-day, five-night flight to Hawaii.

Mission control will not make a decision on the Nanjing leg until late on Monday, March 30.

The decision may rest on the state of the energy reserves held in the plane’s batteries.

China’s air traffic authorities would like the team to start the sixth leg before dawn. But if the reserves are marginal then Solar Impulse will be held in Chongqing until the batteries can be charged.Solar Impulse 2 leaves Myanmar for China

The problem with this scenario is that poor weather is forecast in the Chongqing region in the coming days, and if Solar Impulse does not leave straightaway, it could be delayed for perhaps a week.

Solar Impulse 2 took off from Mandalay International Airport in darkness at 03:36 local time, on March 30. Leg five is a long one – about 1,375km – and is expected to take roughly 19 hours.

It would see Solar Impulse landing around midnight local time at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport.

It is 20 days since the venture got under way from Abu Dhabi.

The Swiss-based project expects the circumnavigation of the globe to be completed in a total of 12 legs, with a return to the Emirate in a few months’ time.

Bertrand Piccard is sharing the flying duties in the single-seater plane with his business partner, Andre Borschberg.

In the past month, Solar Impulse 2 has set two world records for manned solar-powered flight.

The first was for the longest distance covered on a single journey – that of 1,468km between Muscat, Oman, and Ahmedabad, India.

The second was for a groundspeed of 117 knots (135mph), which was achieved during the leg into Mandalay, Myanmar, from Varanasi, India.

No solar-powered plane has ever flown around the world.

The Solar Impulse 2 venture does however recall some other recent circumnavigation feats in aviation – albeit fuelled ones.

In 1986, the Voyager aircraft became the first to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.

Piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the propeller-driven vehicle took nine days to complete its journey.

Then, in 2005, this time was beaten by the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, which was solo-piloted by Steve Fossett.

A jet-powered plane, GlobalFlyer completed its non-stop circumnavigation in just under 3 days.

Solar Impulse 2 has a wingspan of 72m – bigger than that of a 747 jumbo jet airliner – but only weighs 2.3 tonnes.

Its four propellers are dependent on the electricity from 17,000 solar cells that line the top of the wings.

During the night, the props’ motors must call on the excess energy generated and stored during the day in lithium-ion batteries.

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A strong earthquake has rocked central Burma, and there are unconfirmed reports of casualties.

The 6.8-magnitude quake hit some 120 km (70 miles) north of the second-largest city of Mandalay, at a depth of just 10 km, the US Geological Survey said.

Burma’s local media say a bridge under construction collapsed in the town of Shwebo, closest to the epicentre.

In Mandalay, terrified residents dashed out of their homes for safety, fearing more tremors.

The earthquake hit at 07:42 local time, the US Geological Survey said.

An unnamed government official in the capital Naypidaw told Agence France-Presse that so far two people were known to have died, three have been injured and five people are still missing.

A police officer in Shwebo said five construction workers who had been working on the Radana Thinga bridge near the town were missing after “a huge steel beam fell into the river”.

He told Reuters that one woman had died and 10 people had been injured in the nearby town of Kyauk Myaung after a house collapsed.

“This is the worst earthquake I felt in my entire life,” 52-year-old Shwebo resident Soe Soe told Associated Press.

Residents in Mandalay described panic in the streets as they fled the shaking buildings.

“I ran from my bed carrying my daughter out to the street. There were many people in the road. Some were shouting and others felt dizzy,” San Yu Kyaw said.

“People are now scared of more earthquakes,” he added.

The earthquake – which was felt as far away as Bangkok in neighboring Thailand – was followed by two strong aftershocks.

The US Geological Survey issued a yellow alert, indicating that “some casualties and damage are possible”.

Earthquakes are relatively common in Burma.

In March 2011, at least 75 people died when a powerful earthquake hit Burma near the borders with Laos and Thailand.