Solar-powered plane flies over Statue of Liberty, lands in New York in bid to circle the globe
The solar-powered Solar Impulse 2 airplane made it to New York City in the wee hours of Saturday morning, concluding the last leg of its United States trip in a bid to fly around the world.
The experimental plane -- which runs purely on solar power -- landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport at 3:59 a.m. ET after a four-hour and 41 minute flight from Pennsylvania.
Before the plane came in for a landing, it flew around the Statue of Liberty, producing a stunning image of the American icon and Solar Impulse 2 by night.
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“We received very positive and heartwarming responses during our journey through the United States, because it’s a country of pioneers and explorers,” Bertrand Piccard, co-founder of the project, said in a statement.
Piccard and fellow co-founder André Borschberg take turns piloting the craft.
The flight from Pennsylvania to New York -- piloted by Borschberg -- is the 14th leg of Solar Impulse's journey to circumnavigate the globe.
Solar Impulse 2 initially started its trip around the world in March 2015, taking off from Abu Dhabi and making stops in Oman, India, Myanmar, China and Japan before flying to Hawaii. But then they hit a snag in the plan.
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The plane's battery was damaged during its journey, forcing the pilots to suspend their journey until April, when Piccard took off from Hawaii for a three-day trip to the mainland.
Since arriving in California, Piccard and Borschberg have piloted the plane through four other stops before arriving in New York City.
Solar Impulse 2 will now continue its trip around the world, flying across the Atlantic Ocean to North Africa or Europe before making it back to Abu Dhabi.
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Topics Sustainability
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
