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Solar Impulse 2 landed in Phoenix, Ariz. on May 2. Solar Impulse Photo
Solar Impulse 2 (Si2), the solar airplane of Swiss pioneers Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg capable of flying day and night without fuel, recently landed in Phoenix Goodyear Airport, Ariz., with Borschberg at the controls, on May 2 at 8:55 p.m. local time (UTC-7) after taking off from the Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, Calif., the same morning at 5:03 a.m. local time (UTC-7).
The flight, which took 15 hours and 52 minutes, and 745 miles (1,199 kilometres) at a maximum altitude of 22,000 feet (6,706 metres) and average speed of 43.58 miles per hour (70.15 kilometres per hour), is part of the attempt to achieve the first ever ‘round-the-world solar flight, the goal of which is to demonstrate how modern clean technologies can achieve the impossible.
As soon as possible and weather permitting, Piccard will pilot Si2 to the next stop-over and continue the crossing of the United States.
