Solar-powered plane lands safely in HawaiiJul 2 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Kathryn Mykleseth The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Swiss pilots have made aviation history after successfully landing the plane attempting to fly around the world powered only by solar energy in Hawaii at sunrise Friday. Solar Impulse 2 CEO Andre Borschberg landed the plane at Kalaeloa airport in west Oahu at approximately 5:54 a.m. Hawaii time after completing the longest and most dangerous leg of its round-the-world journey. Borschberg was packed into the tiny cockpit on the 5,000-mile journey from Nagayo, Japan, to the Kalaeloa Airport in West Oahu for 120 hours of continuous flying. The sun is the only source of energy for the carbon-fiber aircraft. The plane's 236-foot wingspan was built with more than 17,000 solar cells, four electric motors and lithium batteries replacing the need for fuel. Hawaii will be the first of four U.S. destinations for the plane. The Solar Impulse 2 will take off for Phoenix from Hawaii, and then make an as-yet-undetermined stop in the Midwest, followed by a landing in New York. Since leaving Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in March, the plane has traveled to Muscat, Oman; Ahmedabad and Varanasi, India; Mandalay, Myanmar; Chongqing and Nanjing, China; and Nagoya, Japan. Borschberg alternates as pilot with co-founder and chairman of Solar Impulse Bertrand Piccard. Piccard will take controls of Solar Impulse 2 from Kalaeloa to Phoenix, Arizona. The Solar Impulse 2 flight is not the first world trip for Piccard. Piccard completed a nonstop, round-the-world balloon flight in 1999. Blue Planet Foundation presented a massive lei. This is on par with the Atlantic crossing by Charles Lindberg. It is very appropriate that they land here in Hawaii after the most dangerous leg of the journey as the test bed for all things clean energy. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=36674688 |