The longest leg, an 8,924km (5,545-mile) flight from Nagoya in Japan to Hawaii, US, lasted almost 118 hours and saw Borschberg break the absolute world record for longest (time duration) uninterrupted solo flight.
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The lightweight aircraft, which weighs the same as an SUV but has the wingspan of a Boeing 747, is the brainchild of Piccard and Bertrand Borschberg, a Swiss engineer and businessman.
The pilots also had to demonstrate the mental stamina required to tackle vast distances alone at a cruising speed of no more than 90 km (56 miles) per hour and altitudes of up to 9,000 meters (29,500 feet).
“We have now just watched our shared dream unveil, becoming a reality” the Solar Impulse team said in a blog post.
Co-founder and pilot André Borschberg said: “There is so much potential for the aeronautical world: while one hundred percent solar powered airplanes might take longer to materialize, electric airplanes will develop in the near future due to their tremendous advantages such as energy efficiency”. “The future is you”. No heavier than a auto but with the wingspan of a Boeing 747, the four-engine, battery-powered aircraft relies on around 17,000 solar cells in its wings.
The journey began in March a year ago but after almost 500 hours of flying time on a journey of about 40,000 km (24,500 miles), Piccard said they have demonstrated clean technology is viable: “Our partners not only paid for the project, but also made the technology possible, and with our efforts we made it work and heading for the market, so that Solar Impulse was able fly day and night without fuel”. Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, have set out to achieve something that still seems impossible: the First Round-The-World Solar Flight, powered only by the sun, with no fuel or polluting emissions. The plane stores energy during the day to run on at night.
Besides continuing to promote renewable energy, the pair plan to launch a global council to advise governments and develop new applications for clean energy technology.
But the aircraft was grounded in July past year when its solar-powered batteries suffered problems halfway through the trip.
The plane made stops in Oman, India, Myanmar, China, Japan, the U.S., Spain, Italy, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
Solar Impulse touching down. You can fly now longer without fuel than with fuel, and you fly with the force of nature, you fly with the sun.
Thanking them for spreading the message of sustainability around the world, Ban said, “Now you have been flying more than 40,000 kilometres without fuel, but I know that you have much energy, much energy”. In 1999, he became the first person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop in a hot air balloon.
The project is estimated to cost more than $100 million.
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The project is being supported by Solvay, Omega, Schindler and ABB. They’re also working on Masdar City, an experimental clean-energy showcase located near Abu Dhabi’s largest airport.
