Solar plane completes transatlantic flight

SPAIN – The groundbreaking solar powered plane – Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) – successfully completed its historic transatlantic flight yesterday landing in Seville after three nights without fuel.

The Si2 of Swiss pioneers Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg – landed in Seville after a flight lasting 71 hours and 8 minutes without fuel, completing the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean landing several world records. The transatlantic flight covered a distance of 6’765 km powered only by the sun, confirming Solar Impulse’s vision that clean technologies and renewable energy can achieve the impossible.   

Bertrand touched down at the Seville Airport completing the first ever electric, solar and emission-free transatlantic flight.

“The Atlantic has always revealed the transitions between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ worlds. But while theses worlds used to be geographical continents, today they are states of mind. The ‘old’ world is the world of inefficient polluting devices, depleting the Earth’s resources. The ‘new’ world is the world of modern clean technologies that can halve our global energy consumption, save natural resources and improve our quality of life. With this transatlantic flight our aim is to inspire the adoption of clean technologies everywhere,” said Bertrand, Solar Impulse Initiator and Chairman said.

Last year, André Borschberg accomplished a pioneering first by flying Si2 five days and nights over the Pacific from Japan to Hawaii, thereby proving that it is theoretically feasible to fly perpetually. Yesterday, Bertrand Piccard completed the crossing of the Atlantic – a rite of passage symbolically confirming the maturity and usability of clean technologies, with the clear intention of inspiring people and nations to adopt them everywhere in their daily lives. More than an aviation first, Solar Impulse’s transatlantic flight is a first in the history of renewable energy.

“Solar Impulse is a demonstration of energy efficiency and smart energy management, similar to a flying smart grid. Just imagine your energy reserves increasing during flight and available day after day.” emphasised André Borschberg, CEO, Co-Founder and Pilot “Initially the aviation industry told us it was impossible to build such an airplane, but we believed we could do it thanks to all our partners’ technologies. Last year we showed that it could fly almost perpetually, and now we confirmed it with the transatlantic flight, proving again that change is possible when we have the right mindset and are not afraid to push back our own limits.”

Bertrand Piccard initiated Solar Impulse with the vision of having an airplane capable of flying night and day without using any fuel. To translate this vision into reality, he brought together the partners to fund this adventure and joined forces with André Borschberg who pulled together the team that designed and constructed Si2. In addition to being an aeronautical first, the Solar Impulse project was conceived as a now widely recognized platform to raise public awareness and encourage political actions in favor of clean technologies. To take the ambition a step further, Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg announced, on the third day of the transatlantic flight, the intention of creating the International Committee of Clean Technologies.