Solar-powered airplane lands in New York City

Solar Impulse 2 completed crossing the United States early Saturday with a flight over the Statue of Liberty and landing at New York’s JFK airport.

The pilots snapped stunning photos of the nighttime New York City skyline on their way into the Big Apple, flying over the Statue of Liberty.

The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March past year.

Swiss scientist-adventurer and pilot Bertrand Piccard (R) and Solar Impulse CEO Andre Borschberg pose after they unveil the “Solar Impulse” airplane during a ceremony on June 26, 2009 in Duebendorf near Zurich.

“It was really gorgeous”, Borschberg said of the Statue of Liberty. The Solar Impulse 2 has a wingspan similar to that of a Boeing 747 plane in order to accommodate the solar cells.

The Solar Impulse is on a mission to become the first plane to circumnavigate the globe without using fuel, and its NY stop completed the U.S. leg of the journey.

New York City is the final USA destination of the Solar Impulse 2 during its around-the-world journey.

Piccard said the pair hoped to leave next week on their journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Solar Impulse’s energy efficient solutions can already be used, not only in the air, but also on the ground, and have the potential to change lives, societies and future markets in an unprecedented way.

When it flew from Japan to Hawaii, it record the longest-ever nonstop solo flight in terms of time in the air. “Our mission is to demonstrate that just the energy of the sun can give us enough power to fly day and night”.

The pilots expect to be in NY for several days before embarking on the next leg of their journey to Europe.

The Swiss businessman was at the controls of Solar Impulse 2 on its most hard segment of the trip, a 4,000-mile, 118-hour endurance run from Nagoya, Japan to Hawaii.