After taking off from Dayton, Ohio early on Wednesday, the plane arrived at 8:49 pm (0049 UTC Thursday) at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania after a flight that lasted just under 17 hours, a live video feed showed.
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After a day of delay that allowed the crew to make sure the plane was not damaged, the Solar Impulse 2 was scheduled to take off from Dayton at 4 a.m. for the Lehigh Valley, according to the project spokeswoman Victoire Margairaz. Solar Impulse 2 also has landed in Oman, India, Myanmar, China and Japan.
In the days ahead, the duo hopes to fly Solar Impulse 2 around the Statute of Liberty in NY and cross the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.
Solar Impulse 2 has been a 17-year labor of love for Swiss aviators Piccard and his second pilot colleague Andre Borschberg, and a cast of what is now 150 people working around the clock to prove that continuous flight without fossil fuel is possible.
“Flying day and night with no fuel is considered to be impossible and we do it because we have an energy-efficient plane, Piccard said”.
The U.S. says an Air Force reconnaissance flight over the Sea of Japan that triggered a Russian protest was conducted safely and according to global law. The journey is the 13th leg in a quest that started in Abu Dhabi a year ago to circumnavigate the globe on zero fuel.
However, the plane’s performance on Wednesday was “like it should be” Borschberg said. “I saw this really as a fantastic experience”.
In a two-month trek in 2013, the Swiss pilots flew Solar Impulse 1 coast-to-coast across the United States, landing in Cincinnati along the route.
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Piccard and Borschberg embraced their stay in Dayton, carefully examining the 1905 Wright Flyer III at Carillon Historical Park and touring Orville Wright’s Hawthorn Hill mansion in Oakwood. “That will be an iconic moment for our project”, said Piccard, who had vision for the solar-powered plane and hails from a family of past pioneering explorers.
