A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
The zero-fuel aeroplane left Tulsa, Oklahoma, at 04:22 local time (09:22 GMT), bound for Dayton, Ohio. The 1,100km journey should take pilot Andre Borschberg about 18 hours to complete - a relatively short hop for the solar-powered aircraft. But he will have to contend with steady, strong winds from the northwest as he flies northeast across the US. Solar Impulse is aiming to get to New York in the next couple of weeks before it crosses the Atlantic - the last big leg in its global endeavour.
To complete the circumnavigation, the aeroplane needs to get to Abu Dhabi, UAE, where the flights started in March last year. As well as setting new aviation milestones, the stated purpose of the project is to demonstrate the capability of clean technologies.
The plane gets all its energy from the sun, captured by 17,000 photovoltaic cells on its top surfaces. These power the craft's propellers during the day but also charge batteries that the vehicle's motors can then call on during the night. The craft is wider than a 747 jumbo jet but weighs just 2.3 tonnes. Low flight speed means mission legs can take several days and nights of continuous flight.
The pilot is permitted only catnaps of up to 20 minutes, and the cockpit is little bigger than a public telephone box.
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