A solar-powered airplane successfully completed the longest leg of its historic coast-to-coast flight across the United States today (May 23), landing in Dallas after nearly 20 hours in the air.
The aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse, made the 957-mile (1,541 kilometers) trip from Phoenix to Dallas without using a single drop of fuel. The plane took off from Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport Wednesday (May 22) at 7:47 a.m. EDT (4:47 a.m. local time in Arizona), and landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at 2:08 a.m. EDT (1:08 a.m. local time in Texas) this morning.
"This leg was particularly challenging because of fairly strong winds at the landing," Swiss pilot André Borschberg, co-founder and CEO of Solar Impulse, said in a statement. "It also was the longest flight — in terms of distance — ever flown by a solar airplane. You have to understand that the pilot needs to stay awake for more than 20 hours without any autopilot.