Fuel-Free Plane Completes 1st Round the World Flight Stanley Carvalh - Reuters
go to original July 29, 2016

The adventure showing clean technologies can change the world. If an airplane can fly day and night without fuel, everybody could use these same technologies on the ground to halve our world’s energy consumption, save natural resources and improve our quality of life. (SOLAR IMPULSE)

A solar-powered aircraft successfully completed the first fuel-free flight around the world on this week, returning to Abu Dhabi after an epic 16-month voyage and demonstrating the potential of renewable energy.

The plane, Solar Impulse 2, touched down in the United Arab Emirates capital at 00:05 GMT (04:05 local time) on Tuesday.

It first took off from Abu Dhabi on March 9, 2015, beginning a landmark journey of about 24,500 miles around the globe and nearly 500 hours of flying.

Unfavorable weather at times hindered smooth flying, causing the plane to be grounded for months in some countries.

Swiss explorers Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, Solar Impulse founders and pilots, took turns piloting the aircraft with a wingspan larger than a Boeing 747 and weighing only as much as a family car.

... Over its entire mission, Solar Impulse 2 cruised at altitudes of up to 9,000 metres and at an average speed of between 45 and 90 km (12.5 and 25 miles) per hour. The plane had 16 stopovers along the way including in Oman, India, Myanmar, China, Japan, the United States, Spain and Egypt.

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