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A plane powered by the sun will attempt an unprecedented flight around the world next month, in a bid to prove that flying is possible without using fossil fuels.

Solar Impulse 2 is set to take off from Abu Dhabi with stopovers in India, Myanmar and China, before crossing the Pacific Ocean and flying across the US and southern Europe, to complete its journey where it started.

The ground breaking 22,000-mile (35,000km) trip, is expected to take five months.

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A plane powered by the sun will attempt an unprecedented flight around the world next month, in a bid to prove that flying is possible without using fossil fuel. Its route was announced at the World Future Energy summit in Abu Dhabi, where the Solar Impulse 2 was also on display (pictured)

The engines of the plane - which has a wingspan of 236ft (72 metres) - will be powered solely by solar energy.

Two Swiss pilots will take turns at the controls in the tiny cabin for five consecutive days and nights in the air, spread over five months.

The engines of the plane - which has a wingspan of 236ft (72 metres) - will be powered only by solar energy. It has 17,000 solar cells built into the wings (pictured) to supply four electric motors (17.5 CV each) with renewable energy

'Miracles can be achieved with renewables such as solar power. We want to show we can fly day and night in an aircraftwithout a drop of fuel, said Bertrand Piccard (pictured), one of the pilots

'Miracles can be achieved with renewables such as solar power. We want to show we can fly day and night in an aircraft without a drop of fuel,' Bertrand Piccard, one of the pilots and the project's co-founder, told reporters at the World Future Energy summit in Abu Dhabi.

The plane has a wingspan equal to that of the largest passenger airliner, but weighs the same as a family car at 5,100 lbs (2,300kg).

It will take off in late February and return by the end of July.

Its journey will span approximately 25 flight days at speeds between 30 and 60 miles per hour (50 and 100 kph).

The journey has taken a lot of prepartion.

Feasibility studies, design and construction have taken 12 years, said Andre Borschberg, the second pilot and co-founder. 

See the maiden flight of solar-powered plane Solar Impulse

The airplane (pictured) will take off in late February and return by late July and its journey will span approximately 25 flight days at speeds between 30 to 60 miles per hour (50 and 100 kph)

'It is not the first solar airplane, however it is the first able to cross oceans and continents,' he said.

Mr Piccard said that the scale of the challenge is unknown. 

'It is a question of technical reliability, of human weather and it is the challenge of discovery,' he said, before adding that if something goes wrong, the team will build another aircraft and continue the journey.

'There's a will in humankind to make a better world and find solutions to climate change,' he added.