"If we get the permission from the Indian authorities, we will be landing in Ahmedabad and Varanasi during the first- ever round-the-world flight on a solar powered aircraft in March 2015," Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg told a visiting team of Indian reporters at a military facility here.
56-year-old Piccard, who completed the first non-stop flight around the world in an air balloon in 1999, said he and his team were hopeful of getting permission for landing in the two Indian cities.
He said they were also looking at the possibility of making a landing the aircraft - which has been named Solar Impulse - in China.
Piccard said the single-pilot aircraft will take off from Abu Dhabi around March 1 next year and reach India for its first stop before carrying onwards journey to Far East and across the Pacific Ocean into the United States.
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It will cross the Atlantic Ocean to South of Europe before ending the flight at Abu Dhabi again somewhere in July next year.
He said the Solar Impulse operates on solar energy during the day time while it operates at night on batteries, which are charged during the day using solar energy.
Borschberg, a graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a pilot by passion, said the wings of the aircraft, which have more than 1700 solar cells, have a span bigger than a Jumbo Jet but weighs lighter than a van.
He said while the normal aircraft need either refueling or maintenance after around 12 hours of flight, the solar- powered plane can be operated for 120 hours non-stop.