The plane Solar Impulse 2 landed yesterday in Abu Dhabi at 4:05 GMT and after several unexpected that delayed his feat, completed in 16 months with 16 days its historic journey around the world using the sun as the only source of energy.
the plane took off on Sunday from Egypt for the 17th and final stage, a stretch that was piloted by explorer and physician Swiss Bertrand Piccard, 58, son and grandson of a family of scientists and adventurers.
a crowd gathered at Al Bateen airport to private- flights -reservado gathered despite the lateness of the hour (four o’clock) to receive with cheers and applause the plane that departed from the same point on March 9, 2015.
clean future
“the future is clean. The future is yours. The future is now. Go beyond, “Piccard said upon disembarking the plane, whose grandfather was the first man to reach the stratosphere and his father the first to reach the deepest point in the oceans.
At the foot of the plane waiting his partner in this historic adventure, the Swiss pilot André Borschberg, 63. In a message posted on Twitter hours before, Piccard had written: “I launched the project in 2003 @solarimpulse to convey the message that clean technologies can achieve the impossible”
In the last browsed stretch. 2 thousand 763 kilometers, the Solar Impulse 2 took 49 hours of continuous flight, carrying their solar batteries on board during the day to keep flying at nightfall.
the UN secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed “deep admiration” for this initiative. “It’s a historic day, not only for you, also for humanity,” he said in the conversation with the Swiss pilot hours before landing, which was broadcast live from the Web site of the project.
weighing a ton and a half as wide as a Boeing 747, the aircraft flies thanks to batteries that store solar energy captured by photovoltaic cells 17000 in its wings and on the back of its fuselage. His average speed ranges 50 km / h, but can duplicate when exposed to full sun.
Setbacks
The cruise was scheduled to last only five months (from March to August 2015), but the vagaries of the weather, battery failures and even a stomach illness led to numerous delays between steps.
on the longest stage, which consisted to cross the Pacific, flew 118 hours from Nagoya, Japan, to the US islands of Hawaii, which corresponded pilot Andre Borschberg to cover a distance of 6 000 437 kilometers.
at this stage the feat had the most significant delay, since he had to make a long technical stop nearly 10 months in the American archipelago to fix batteries that were damaged in flight over the Pacific, which lasted five days.
in addition the scale in Japan was not contemplated in the original plan, but it was necessary after the plane left Nankin, China, because the weather conditions did not allow to make a transoceanic flight.
the aircraft also he was stopped for a week at the airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma, until the pilot considered that the weather situation was appropriate to make your way.
in his latest setback, and l Solar Impulse 2 had to leave Egypt last week, but takeoff was delayed by strong prevailing winds and because the pilot got sick stomach.
from the beginning of the adventure the plane was piloted alternately by Borschberg and Piccard. “We were a little anxious on the subject of weather, particularly temperatures in this region of the world, close to the limits we set for the plane,” said Borschberg from the control center of the plane in Monaco.
Piccard has crossed the Atlantic twice balloon and his father did in submarine.
the crossing of the Pacific, in two stages, was the most dangerous part of the world tour of Solar Impulse 2 by the great distance from the landing points in case of problems.
during the first part of this great ocean crossing, between Nagoya and Hawaii, Borschberg piloted five days and five nights to travel 924 kilometers 8,000.
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