Xinhua, Honolulu :
Solar Impulse 2 (SI2), the first solar-powered aircraft in an attempt to fly around the world, safely landed at Kalaeloa Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, at 5:51 a.m. local time (1551 GMT), Friday after 118-hour non-stop flight over Pacific.
Swiss explorer Andre Borshberg, the pilot, walked out of the cockpit after remaining there waiting for one more hour upon landing. Borshberg finished the 8,200 kilometers of non-stop solo flight from Nagoya of Japan before he landed the plane successfully at the Kalaeloa Airport in Honolulu.
Borshberg’s flight over the Pacific Ocean is believed to have broken three records: distance and duration for solar aviation, world record for longest solo flight ever.
The craft reached the sky of Honolulu at 2 a.m. local time ( 1200 GMT), but due to the poor light condition of the airport at night, it had to hover in the sky for four more hours before landing at dawn.
Hawaii is the eighth leg of the plane’s 35,000-kilometer journey around the world that started from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on March 9. It is piloted alternatively by Swiss explorers Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard.
On the trip from Japan to Hawaii, Borschberg navigated alone for 118 hours, almost 5 days and nights, in an unheated and unpressurised cockpit, sleeping in bursts of 20 minutes while on autopilot.
Solar Impulse 2 (SI2), the first solar-powered aircraft in an attempt to fly around the world, safely landed at Kalaeloa Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, at 5:51 a.m. local time (1551 GMT), Friday after 118-hour non-stop flight over Pacific.
Swiss explorer Andre Borshberg, the pilot, walked out of the cockpit after remaining there waiting for one more hour upon landing. Borshberg finished the 8,200 kilometers of non-stop solo flight from Nagoya of Japan before he landed the plane successfully at the Kalaeloa Airport in Honolulu.
Borshberg’s flight over the Pacific Ocean is believed to have broken three records: distance and duration for solar aviation, world record for longest solo flight ever.
The craft reached the sky of Honolulu at 2 a.m. local time ( 1200 GMT), but due to the poor light condition of the airport at night, it had to hover in the sky for four more hours before landing at dawn.
Hawaii is the eighth leg of the plane’s 35,000-kilometer journey around the world that started from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on March 9. It is piloted alternatively by Swiss explorers Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard.
On the trip from Japan to Hawaii, Borschberg navigated alone for 118 hours, almost 5 days and nights, in an unheated and unpressurised cockpit, sleeping in bursts of 20 minutes while on autopilot.
