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After a flight of 15 hours, 20 minutes and 1,468 kilometers in the solar-powered airplane Solar Impulse 2, Swiss adventurer Bertand Piccard arrived in Ahmedabad, India at 11:25 pm on Tuesday to successfully complete the second leg of their historic round-the-world journey.
Prince Albert of Monaco, overseeing the start from the master control room in Monaco, had sent Piccard off on the flight from Muscat, the capital of Oman, with the official "go" command earlier in the day at 6:35 am. During the smooth flight over the Arabian Sea in the specially engineered Solar Impulse 2 airplane, which is not using a single drop of fossil fuel on its circumnavigation of the globe, Piccard conducted several in-flight interviews with international media outlets such as CNN and the BBC, which are closely following the progress of the flight designed to raise awareness for climate change and preserving natural resources. He also managed to take two brief catnaps of 10 minutes each with the help of self-hypnosis, getting ready for the longer five-day non-stop flights across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
The second leg of the round-the-world flight broke the first record. Covering a distance of 1,468 kilometers, Piccard thus set a world record for the longest solar-powered flight, surpassing the mark set by his Solar Impulse 2 partner Andre Boschberg, which he set during the an earlier Flight across America in 2013 when he covered a distance of 1,387 kilometers on the longest single leg of that journey.
Made from a lightweight carbon fiber frame, the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft is producing no carbon emissions on its journey.
The exact position of the plane can be followed on the official web site, http://www.solarimpulse.com
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