Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard landed the Solar Impulse 2 in Spain on Thursday after a 71-hour flight from New York City — realizing his dream of being the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a plane powered only by the sun.
Applause erupted as the experimental plane set down at Seville airport in southern Spain just before 7:40 a.m., Agence France-Presse reported.
“It is so fantastic!”, Piccard, 58, told mission control center in Monaco as the plane, which took off from the Big Apple on Monday, touched down.
Piccard said he thought a lot about aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh — the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927 — during the 4,200-mile flight.
“I met him when I was 11, we were both at the Apollo 12 take-off, and for me Lindbergh is one of these heroes who did what no one thought was possible,” Piccard told AFP.
With the successful crossing, Solar Impulse completed the 15th leg of a round-the-world trip aimed at promoting clean, renewable energy.
It set out on March 9, 2015, from Abu Dhabi and has flown across Asia and the Pacific to the US. At night, it is powered with energy stored in its 17,000 photovoltaic cells.
The trip was close to Piccard’s heart as he had also crossed the Atlantic in 1999 on the first non-stop air balloon circumnavigation of the globe without fuel.
Solar Impulse 2Reuters“Good morning Seville! Do you have a lot of direct flights from NYC?” he tweeted shortly before landing, when he was treated to an acrobatic display by the Spanish air force.
Piccard, who got little sleep during the nearly three-day flight, said: “I just tried to soak in this magical experience — when you fly without any noise or fuel, it’s magic.”
He said a group of engineers and meteorologists helped him face the challenges and pass through clouds as if “through the eye of a needle.”
Piccard and his Swiss compatriot Andre Borschberg are taking turns at the controls of the single-seat plane as it flies around the world.
Borschberg piloted a 5,545-mile leg between Japan and Hawaii that lasted 118 hours, smashing the record for the longest uninterrupted journey in aviation history.
After the Atlantic crossing, Borschberg plans to fly to Egypt, and Piccard will take the controls for the final journey back to Abu Dhabi in early July.
With a wingspan of a Boeing 747, Solar Impulse typically travels at a mere 36 mph — though its speed can double when its 17,000 cells are exposed to full sunlight.
The pilot takes the aircraft to 29,000 feet during the day and glides down to 5,000 feet during the night, to conserve power, The Guardian reported.
“When you fly in a plane like this, you have the impression of being in a science fiction story,” Piccard said.
“You look at the sun above you, and then you realize that the sun is providing the necessary energy to run the four electric engines and charge the batteries, spend the night flying and continue the next day.
“At the same time it’s not science fiction, it’s the present, it’s today,” he added. “When you see what can be done with this clean energy, you think, ‘Why is it not used more everywhere?'”
