Solar-powered Solar Impulse plane completes its trip around the world
After more than 24,000 miles, a solar-powered plane just completed the final leg of its flight around the world.
Solar Impulse 2 -- the experimental solar plane which first set out on its circumnavigation attempt in 2015 -- has just landed in Abu Dhabi, its final landing spot and the city where its around-the-world bid began.
For this last flight, pilot Bertrand Piccard took off from Cairo on July 23, landing on July 25 at around 8:05 p.m. ET.
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Piccard and his fellow Solar Impulse pilot André Borschberg set out on this world tour to raise awareness about solar power and clean technology that could one day change the way we travel.
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Solar Impulse 2 is making use of energy efficient batteries and other technologies that could one day help make flight more fuel efficient and friendly for the environment.
"The [clean] technologies exist," Piccard told Mashable during a Facebook Live.
"What is lacking today is the state of mind to use them because you have too many people who are resistant to change. They are prisoners of the old ways of thinking and doing."
After his flight Piccard wants to work with governments to help promote green technologies and help make this tech an economic reality.
Solar Impulse 2 is a scaled-up experimental plane based on the first Solar Impulse which flew years ago.
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Both planes were designed to help prove out technology that could one day lead to flights that are only solar powered with no supplemental type of fuel.
But their trip may have been worth it if only for the views.
Flying the plane hasn't been easy. Piccard and Borschberg take turns flying the craft, which is a one-seater that doesn't even provide enough room for the pilots to stand up straight.
The circumnavigation effort began in March 2015 in Abu Dhabi. From there, Solar Impulse 2 flew around the globe in 17 legs that brought the plane and its pilot across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and landing in several countries.
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.
