The United Nations congratulated the Solar Impulse team on their successful flight, with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon having spoken with pilot Bertrand Piccard during the final leg of the round-the-world trip.
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The Swiss-designed plane, which first took off from the capital of the United Arab Emirates in March 2015, has made 16 stops around the world to complete its epic 40,000-kilometer journey, Bloomberg reports. The distance covered and the time spent in the air – 118 hours – were records for manned, solar-powered flight.
“I think you will spend the next hours thinking about the flight, all the human moments and all the energy we have”, his co-pilot Borschberg said. “We had to build up this mindset, not just the plane and technology”, Piccard told reporters. “These technologies now can make the world much better and we have to use them, not only for the environment, but also because they are profitable and create jobs”.
During the day, the pilot also climbed to 29,000 feet and glided down to 5,000 feet at night, to conserve power.
The carbon-fibre plane is powered exclusively by energy collected from the 17,000 solar cells on its wings, which also charge batteries to enable flight through the night. “Let’s take it further”, Piccard reportedly said after arriving at Abu Dhabi amid cheers and applause.
On the way, it set several new aviation records, including that of the longest solo duration for an airplane (117 hours, 52 minutes) achieved by André Borschberg on the leg from Japan to Hawaii, and the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a solar airplane achieved by Bertrand Piccard.
Over its entire mission, Solar Impulse 2 cruised at altitudes of up to 9,000 metres and at an average speed of between 45-90 km/ph.
Its North American stops included California, Arizona, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania and NY.
Dubbed the “paper plane”, Solar Impulse 2 has been circumnavigating the globe in stages, with 58-year-old Piccard and his compatriot Andre Borschberg taking turns at the controls of the single-seat aircraft.
Piccard took the last leg from Cairo Sunday morning. Solar Impulse flew near the Statue of Liberty and Egypt’s pyramids for photo opportunities and was grounded for more than half a year in Hawaii due to battery overheating along the way.
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The revolutionary voyage, which the team labeled a “13-year exploit”, demonstrates the biggest exploration of energy efficient batteries and clean technology that could potentially alter the way we travel.
