The flight is the longest leg of an around-the-world voyage planned by two Swiss pilots who have been taking turns flying the single-seat airplane. It is also the riskiest because the plane has nowhere to land in an emergency. One of the pilots, Andre Borschberg, broke the record for the longest nonstop solo flight on the way to Hawaii, the team organising the trip said. He shattered the previous record set by the late U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett, who flew around the world in 76 hours in a specially designed jet in 2006. “Can you imagine that a solar-powered airplane without fuel can now fly longer than a jet plane?” Bertrand Piccard, the aircraft’s other pilot, said in a statement. “This is a clear message that clean technologies can achieve impossible goals.”
The aircraft is scheduled to land at a small airport outside Honolulu in the early hours. Its next destination after leaving the islands is Phoenix, but the departure date hasn’t been announced.AP