{"id":24852,"date":"2016-04-24T05:34:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T05:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/solar-impulse-2-completes-pacific-ocean-flight\/"},"modified":"2016-04-24T05:34:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T05:34:12","slug":"solar-impulse-2-completes-pacific-ocean-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/solar-impulse-2-completes-pacific-ocean-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Impulse 2 completes Pacific Ocean flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Solar Impulse 2 lands in San Francisco following a 62-hour, nonstop solo flight without fuel.}<\/p>\n

A solar-powered plane has landed in California, completing a risky, three-day flight across the Pacific Ocean as part of its journey around the world.<\/p>\n

Pilot Bertrand Piccard landed the Solar Impulse 2 in Mountain View, in the Silicon Valley south of San Francisco, following a 62-hour, nonstop solo flight without fuel.<\/p>\n

The plane taxied into a huge tent erected on Moffett Airfield where Piccard was greeted by the project’s team.<\/p>\n

The landing came several hours after Piccard performed a fly-by over the Golden Gate Bridge as spectators watched the narrow aircraft with extra wide wings from below.<\/p>\n

“I crossed the bridge. I am officially in America,” he declared as he took in spectacular views of San Francisco Bay.<\/p>\n

Piccard and fellow Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg have been taking turns flying the plane on an around-the-world trip since taking off from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in March 2015. It made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China, Japan and Hawaii.<\/p>\n

The trans-Pacific leg was the riskiest part of the plane’s global travels because of the lack of emergency landing sites.<\/p>\n

“The idea here is not so much that solar planes can immediately replace jet planes powered by fossil fuel,” Al Jazeera\u2019s Rob Reynolds, reporting from Mountain View, said.<\/p>\n

“It is rather to give the pioneers of the technology inspiration for other uses of solar power.”<\/p>\n

Wider wings<\/p>\n

The plane’s ideal flight speed is about 28 mph, though that can double during the day when the sun’s rays are strongest. The carbon-fiber aircraft weighs more than 2,268kg, or about as much as a mid-size truck.<\/p>\n

The plane’s wings, which stretch wider than those of a Boeing 747, are equipped with 17,000 solar cells that power propellers and charge batteries. The plane runs on stored energy at night.<\/p>\n

Solar Impulse 2 will make three more stops in the US before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Europe or Northern Africa, according to the website documenting the journey.<\/p>\n

The project, which began in 2002 and is estimated to cost more than $100m, is meant to highlight the importance of renewable energy and the spirit of innovation. Solar-powered air travel is not yet commercially practical, however, given the slow travel time, weather and weight constraints of the aircraft.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Solar Impulse 2 lands in San Francisco following a 62-hour, nonstop solo flight without fuel.} A solar-powered plane has landed in California, completing a risky, three-day flight across the Pacific Ocean as part of its journey around the world. Pilot Bertrand Piccard landed the Solar Impulse 2 in Mountain View, in the Silicon Valley south […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24852"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24852"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}