Solar Brothers meet the Wright Brothers in Dayton, Ohio

2016 05_22_2015_06_01_Solar_Impulse_2_RTW_7th_Flight_Nanjing_to_Hawaii_take-off_pizzolante_250_thumb

Solar Impulse 2, with Swiss pilot and co-founder André Borschberg in the cockpit, touched down in Dayton International Airport in Ohio after a 16 hours and 34 minutes flight, landing on 22 May at 03:56 CET (01:56 UTC, 21:56 Local Time). This marks the completion of the third leg of their US journey and 12th leg in total of the pioneering project to circumnavigate the globe without a drop of fuel.

Solar Impulse 2 took off at 11:22 CET (09:22 UCT, 04:22 Local Time) on Saturday, 21 May from Tulsa International Airport. The next flight is expected to go to New York City, before they cross the Atlantic Ocean and return to the final destination in Abu Dhabi (UAE) where the voyage started in March 2015.

Dayton is a special milestone, it is known for being home of the legendary Wright brothers' invention of powered flight. It's also the 89th anniversary of American aviator Charles Lindbergh's landing in Paris in the first Atlantic crossing on a plane (20 May 1927). Bertrand Piccard, right after Boschberg’s take off, referred to the continuous aviation history made in the US. Now the Solar Impulse project is the latest chapter of aviation innovation and the Solar Brothers are arriving to the city of the Wright Brothers in Dayton, Ohio.

2016 05_22_Solar_brothers_Wright_brothers

Photo Credit: Solar Impulse