Solar Impulse 2 makes first flight across US

Phoenix, Arizona – André Borschberg softly landed the sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) aircraft at Phoenix Goodyear Airport at 3:55am UTC on May 3, 2016 (8:55pm MST on May 2, 2016). He left 15 hours and 52 minutes earlier from Moffett Federal Airfield, California, where Si2 had been resting for a week after Bertrand Piccard’s 62 hour and 29 minute flight from Hawaii. This latest flight marks the first flight on the North American continent with Si2. The Solar Impulse team made a similar flight during the Across America tour with Solar Impulse 1 in 2013.

 

After spending a few hours cruising at 22,000ft, Borschberg got to Phoenix earlier than expected with strong tail winds that pushed him at 115mph (186km/hour), well above Si2’s average flight speed.

 

The goal with this part of the round-the-world solar journey is to reach New York as quickly as possible in order to continue circumnavigating the globe with the Atlantic Crossing.