ABU DHABI. The plane Solar Impulse 2 landed Tuesday in Abu Dhabi at 04:05 GMT and completed the last leg of its historic journey around the world using the sun as the only energy source.
The plane had taken off for the 17th and final stage on Sunday from Egypt and the final section was piloted by explorer and physician Swiss Bertrand Piccard , 58, and 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 am) to receive with cheers and applause the plane, he reported AFP reporter. At the foot of the plane Piccard awaited his partner in this historic adventure, the Swiss driver André Borschberg , 63
“The future is clean. The future is yours. The future is now. Let us go beyond “said deplaning Piccard, whose grandfather was the first man to reach the stratosphere and his father the first to reach the deepest point of the oceans. “I want you to remember something: more than an achievement of aviation, Solar Impulse 2 is an achievement in the history of energy. There are solutions. There are technologies. Not accept that the world is contaminated just because people are afraid to think otherwise “topped Piccard
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. ” For this stage of 2,763 km Solar Impulse 2 used 49 hours of continuous flight, charging during the day with solar batteries on board to keep flying at nightfall.
The Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-moon expressed “profound admiration” for this initiative. “It’s a historic day not only for you but also for humanity,” Ban said in a conversation with the Swiss pilot hours before landing and broadcast live.
The Solar Impulse 2 had departed from Abu Dhabi on March 9, 2015 to start around the world. Weighing a ton and a half as wide as a Boeing 747, fly Solar Impulse 2 thanks to batteries that store solar energy captured by photovoltaic cells around 17,000 on its wings and on the back of its fuselage. The plane flies in general to something less than 50 km / h, but can double your speed when exposed to full sun.
The solar plane arrived in Cairo on July 13 after taking off from the city Sevilla Andalusian (southern Spain), after traveling 3,745 km in 48 hours and 50 minutes. Piccard made the first transatlantic flight in an airplane can fly without fuel. He flew 71 hours and 8 minutes uninterrupted to travel the 6,765 km between New York (USA) of the Andalusian capital.
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. “But we are pretty confident, things should go well,” he added.
Piccard twice crossed the Atlantic in a balloon. In his journey around the world the plane stopped in Muscat (Oman), Ahmedabad and Varanasi (India), Mandalay (Burma, Chongqing and Nanjing (China), then in Nagoya (Japan) and Hawaii (USA) , which made an unexpected stopover of several months. from there he went to San Franciso and across North America making stopover in Phoenix, Tulsa, Dayton, Lehigh Valley and New York.
the crossing of the Pacific, in two stages, was the most dangerous part of the world tour of Solar Impulse 2 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 8,924 km.
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