Solar Impulse 2 — flown by Bertrand Piccard — touched down safely at Al Bateen Executive Airport, Abu Dhabi, at 12:05AM UTC on 26th July after a 48 hour and 37 minute flight from Cairo, Egypt. The 2,694km flight was the 17th and final leg of the solar-powered aircraft’s round-the-world trip, which started when the aircraft departed Abu Dhabi on 9th March 2015.
It is the first time that a solar-powered aircraft has circled the globe. Cumulated flight time over the entire trip was just over 558 hours.
Flown alternately by Piccard and Swiss compatriot André Borschberg, the aircraft set multiple records during the 43,000km odyssey, including a five-day flight over the Western Pacific from Nagoya, Japan to Hawaii lasting 117 hours and 52 minutes. The aircraft was subsequently confined to its hangar for nine months to fix a battery problem and wait for the days to lengthen enough to resume flying.
The aircraft, which has a loaded weight of 2,300kg, features a wingspan of almost 72m and four electric motors driven by lithium-ion batteries. The wings, fuselage and tailplane are covered with 270m2 of solar cells, or a total of 17,248 cells. Cruising speed is around 90km/h, dropping to 60km/h at night. Average airspeed over the entire mission was 75km/h, with a maximum recorded ground speed of 216km/h.
Last, and most importantly, total fuel consumption was zero litres.