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Solar Impulse 2 finishes world tour, arrives in Abu Dhabi

Xinhua, July 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Fully-solar energy powered plane Solar Impulse 2 (SI2), developed and flown by Swiss psychiatrist and adventurer Bertrand Piccard, landed here safely Tuesday morning, completing the aircraft's world tour that started on March 9, 2015.

The last and 17th leg of the 22-meter-long plane from Cairo to Abu Dhabi took around 48 hours. The aircraft arrived at Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at 4:05 a.m. local time (0005 GMT).

"The first thing I will do is after I land, I will thank the team," Piccard told CNN in midair when he overflew Saudi Arabian airspace.

Upon arrival at 36 degrees Celcius in the dark, the 58-year-old Piccard was greeted by his Swiss co-founder and pilot partner Andre Borschberg, UAE Minister of State Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Swiss Vice President Doris Leuthard and Prince Albert II of Monaco. Hundreds of media representatives, officials and corporate executives from UAE, Switzerland and Monaco joined the arrival.

"Andre Borschberg and myself waited for this moment for 15 years," Piccard said in his first address after landing.

"We flew 40,000 kilometers without fuel. It is now up to everyone to change the world by using renewable energy. The future is clean," he added.

During its 16-month-long world tour, SI2 made stops in Oman, India, Myanmar, China, Japan, the United States, Europe and Africa. The two Swiss adventurers took turns piloting the plane from trip to trip as SI2 has only one pilot seat. Endi