BackSolar plane lands in New York, completing US journey
The project team decided to shorten the flight after a tear appeared on the underside of the left wing
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New York: An airplane entirely powered by the sun touched down in New York City late on Saturday, completing the final leg of an epic journey across the US that began over two months ago.
The Solar Impulse, its four propellers driven by energy collected from 12,000 solar cells in its wings to charge batteries for night use, landed at John F. Kennedy Airport at 11:09pm EDT (0309 GMT), organizers said.
The experimental aircraft had left Dulles International Airport outside Washington for its last leg more than 18 hours earlier, on a route that took it north over Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey.
The spindly aircraft had been expected to land in the early hours of Sunday, but the project team decided to shorten the flight after an 8-foot (2.5m) tear appeared on the underside of the left wing.
The condition of the aircraft was declared sufficiently stable to continue, and pilot Andre Borschberg was not in danger, the organizers said.
The Solar Impulse is the first solar-powered plane capable of operating day and night to fly across the US.
With the wingspan of a jumbo jet and the weight of a small car, the aircraft completed the first leg of the journey from San Francisco to Phoenix in early May and flew later that month from Phoenix to Dallas.
From there it flew to St. Louis, stopped briefly in Cincinnati, then flew on to Washington, where is has remained since 16 June.
Intended to boost support for clean energy technologies, the project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of $112 million (€90 million).
It has involved engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler Holding Ltd and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay SA.
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