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UN chief to visit solar-powered airplane in New York City

Xinhua, June 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN chief Ban Ki-moon is expected to meet in New York City with pilots and founders of a solar-powered airplane that is on a globe-circling voyage, UN officials said here Saturday.

Ban is scheduled to visit the Solar Impulse 2, the first solar plane capable of flying day and night without using a drop of fuel, on Monday afternoon at the John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport during the expedition's stopover in New York City, said the officials.

The Solar Impulse 2, the spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft of the size of a 747 with the weight of a car and the power of a small motorcycle, uses no fossil fuels and has no emissions.

The airplane landed at JFK airport in New York early Saturday morning. New York will be the 14th stop on its 35,000 kilometer (22,000-mile) round-the-world journey which began in Abu Dhabi in March 2015.

New York City is the final U.S. destination of the Solar Impulse 2 during its around-the-world journey. Its trip across the U.S. mainland began on April 24, when the Solar Impulse landed in San Francisco from Hawaii.

The secretary-general will meet with the pilots, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, who have so far taken turns at piloting the craft over Asia, the Pacific, and North America, said the officials.

The plane took off from Lehigh Valley in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania around 11 p.m ET on Friday, arriving at JFK airport in New York nearly five hours later after a flight of 165 miles (some 265 km).

The Solar Impulse 2 was originally scheduled to arrive in New York on Tuesday, but the flight was put off due to bad weather. Endit