“Can you imagine crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on a solar-powered plane just like ships did in past centuries?”
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Images of the elegant Solar Impulse 2, with the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but only weighing about as much as an SUV, flew over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay marking a significant achievement.
While Piccard was at the controls for this ninth leg of the round-the-world trip, he and Borschberg take turns flying the plane solo.
The team began its circumnavigation attempt in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in March past year, and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and Japan.
The latest journey is the riskiest of the plane’s worldwide journey due to a lack of emergency landing sites. The crew that helped it take off headed for the mainland for the weekend arrival.
This April 9, 2016 photo provided by Bertrand Piccard via Global Newsroom shows Piccard taking a selfie on board Solar Impulse 2 during a test flight over the Pacific Ocean.
Piccard said the stop in Silicon Valley was meant symbolically to link the Impulse 2’s journey to the spirit of innovation here.
They are Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard and Swiss engineer Andre Borschberg. The team was delayed in Asia, as well.
A month later, with better weather conditions, the plane left Nagoya in central Japan for Hawaii.
The plane normally flies at around 28mph (45kph) but can reach double that speed when the sun’s rays are strongest. The carbon-fiber aircraft weighs more than 5,000 pounds, or about as much as a midsize truck.
A significant difference in the two flights is that Earhart’s plane carried 500 gallons of gasoline whereas the Solar Impulse 2 runs on only energy from the sun.
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The goal of the solar flight is to promote the use of renewable energy with an aircraft powered by 17,000 solar cells.
