Solar plane lands in Spain after three-day Atlantic crossing

Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg took turns behind the controls to guide the single-seater plane to safety in the 15th leg of its record breaking round-the-world trip.

He experienced what he described as “a long night of turbulence” but was also treated to sightings of whales and icebergs, and even spotted a commercial plane flying past him.

Speaking after the landing, Piccard said: “Oh-la-la, absolutely flawless”, and thanked his engineering crew for their efforts.

In a press release, Solar Impulse said the plane broke several world records, pending approval by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which oversees air sports.

Created to prove the potential of renewable energy, Solar Impulse 2 had already earned a place in the history books prior to the trans-Atlantic flight.

Kennedy International Airport June 20 to follow a trail blazed by aviation pioneers in decades past, Piccard, the project initiator and co-founder, and the team had anticipated a journey of 90 to 110 hours, but landed just 71 hours and eight minutes after launch.

The plane has travelled 22,743 miles since setting off on the first leg of the trip from Abu Dhabi to Oman in March 2015, and has racked up 460 hours of flight time.

Si2 is covered in 17,000 solar cells with the wingspan of a Boeing 747. Supported by Main Partners Solvay, Omega, Schindler, ABB, Official Partners Google, Altran, Covestro, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, Swisscom and Moët Hennessy, and Host Partners, Masdar in Abu Dhabi and Foundation Prince Albert II in Monaco, they are attempting the first Round-The-World Solar Flight with Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) – demonstrating that clean technologies can achieve the impossible.

“It’s so fantastic”, Mr Piccard said from the cockpit as the plane sat on the tarmac.

“At the same time it’s not science fiction, it’s the present, it’s today”, he added. The team, aiming to show what’s possible with solar power, had planned to land in Paris, to mimic Charles Lindbergh’s first flight across the Atlantic in 1927, but because of weather patterns, it had to settle for the southern Spanish town.