The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft completed a historic flight in its
quest to circle the globe without consuming a drop of fuel, touching
down gracefully in Hawaii on Friday after the most arduous leg of its
journey.
The sun-powered plane, piloted by veteran Swiss aviator Andre
Borschberg, took 118 hours—about five days—to make the voyage from Japan
to Hawaii and landed shortly after dawn at Kalaeloa Airport on the main
Hawaiian island of Oahu.
“Just landed in #Hawaii with @solarimpulse! For @bertrandpiccard and
I, it’s a dream coming true,” Borschberg tweeted triumphantly after
completing the most perilous part of the around-the-world odyssey.
Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard have been alternating the long solo
flights and Japan to Hawaii—where it was Borschberg in sole control—was
the eighth of 13 legs.
“Difficult to believe what I see: #Si2 in Hawaii! But I never had
doubts that @andreborschberg could make it!” tag-team copilot Piccard
wrote on Twitter.
“This flight to Hawaii is not only an aviation historic first, but also a historic first for energy and cleantechs.”
The experimental plane landed a little after 1600 GMT, and
Borschberg, all smiles, emerged a short time later from the cockpit,
later adorning a traditional Hawaiian flower lei and holding a
celebratory bottle of champagne.
Sunlight glimmered on the horizon as the Solar Impulse ground crew
burst into cheers and applause upon completion of the groundbreaking
flight.
The 4,000-mile leg (6,500 kilometers) from Nagoya, Japan to Hawaii
was not only the world’s longest solar-powered flight both in terms of
flying time and distance, it also set the record for longest solo flight
by time.
The whole trip from Japan to Hawaii took four days and 22 hours, with
the Swiss aviator taking catnaps of only 20 minutes at a time to
maintain control of the pioneering plane.
Borschberg easily beat the previous longest solo endurance flight, by
Steve Fossett, who flew for 76 hours and 45 minutes in 2006 in the
Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.
Fellow pioneering aviator and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson tweeted his congratulations to Borschberg and his team.
“Congrats @SolarImpulse, beating @Virgin GlobalFlyer record non-stop
solo flight without refuelling. Huge step forward,” Branson wrote.
Yoga in the sky
The flight tested its exhausted pilot to the maximum, in what his team described as “difficult” conditions.
Traveling at altitudes of more than 9,000 meters (29,500 feet),
Borschberg at times had to use oxygen tanks to breathe and experienced
huge swings in temperature throughout.
Alone throughout the entire flight and utterly self-reliant in the
unpressurized cockpit, Borschberg was equipped with a parachute and life
raft, in case he needed to ditch in the Pacific.
Mission organizers described the journey as having taken “pilot and aircraft to the limits” of their endurance.
Borschberg, born in Zurich, is no stranger to adventure -- 15 years
ago, he narrowly escaped an avalanche, and then in 2013 he was involved
in a helicopter crash that left him with minor injuries.
The pilot, who is also a yoga enthusiast, has worked as an army pilot
and supervised the construction of the first Solar Impulse plane.
In 2010, for the first time in history, he flew 26 hours straight using only solar energy.
Borschberg didn’t let the tiny cockpit of the Solar Impulse 2 plane
stop him from practising yoga, transforming his tiny bench into a yoga
mat and using specialized postures custom-tailored for him by his
personal yogi.
“Yoga is a great support for this flight above the Pacific: it
positively affects my mood and mindset,” Borschberg tweeted Thursday
with a photo of himself in a pose.
Next stop: Phoenix
The plane will now be flown across the United States and eventually,
if all goes according to plan, land back in Abu Dhabi next March, where
it started its journey earlier this year.
The next leg will be piloted by Piccard and will fly 2,920 miles from Hawaii to Phoenix.
Solar Impusle 2 has 17,000 solar cells and on-board rechargeable lithium batteries, allowing it to fly through the night.
Its wingspan is longer than that of a jumbo jet but it weighs only 2.3 tonnes—about the same as a car.