Twenty days of flight, 17-leg journey in a zero-emission electric and solar plane – an epic trip of a lifetime. Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg succeeded in their crazy dream of achieving the first ever Round-The-World Solar Flight. That’s some seriously eco-friendly, green travel!
Video by Solarimpulse.com
By landing back in Abu Dhabi after a total of 21 days of flight, Si2 has proven that clean technologies can achieve the impossible. Beyond this historic milestone, the two Swiss pioneers will continue to urge the global implementation of energy efficient solutions through the creation of the International Committee for Clean Technologies.
The final leg was bumpy, with turbulence driven by hot desert air leaving the solo pilot, Bertrand Piccard, fighting with the controls. Incidentally, we love the cartoons on their site.
Martin Saive via Solar Impulse
The plane, which has a wingspan wider than a Boeing 747 (72 metres) and carries more than 17,248 solar cells on its wings, began the circumnavigation in March 2015 in Abu Dhabi. Weighing a mere 2300 kg, it has since crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans using no fossil fuel.
Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg set out to achieve something that still seems impossible today: the First Round-The-World Solar Flight, powered only by the sun, with no fuel or polluting emissions. The record breaking solo flight of 5 days and 5 nights without fuel from Nagoya to Hawaii gives a clear message : everybody could use the plane’s technologies on the ground to halve our world’s energy consumption, save natural resources and improve our quality of life.
A big cheer from Team Ecophiles for the boys!