The sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 aircraft set off from
New York’s JFK airport early Monday June 20,2016, embarking on the transatlantic leg
of its record-breaking flight around the world to promote renewable
energy
The flight, piloted by Swiss adventurer
Bertrand Piccard, is expected to take about 90 hours — during which
Piccard will only take short naps — before landing at Spain’s Seville
airport. “It’s my first time taking off from JFK,” Piccard said over a
live feed from the aircraft as he headed into the night sky just after
2:30 AM (1200 IST).
The plane, which is no heavier
than a car but has the wingspan of a Boeing 747, is being flown on its
35,000-kilometre round-the-world journey by two pilots taking turns,
Piccard and Swiss entrepreneur Andre Borschberg.
Piccard
is piloting the plane on the 15th leg of its east-west journey that
began March 9, 2015 in Abu Dhabi, and has taken the aircraft across Asia
and the Pacific to the US with the sun as its only source of power.
Prince
Albert of Monaco, a patron of the project, gave the flight the go-ahead
from its mission control centre in Monaco, telling Piccard “you are
released to proceed.”
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