The solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 departs from the international airport in Cairo, capital of Egypt, July 23, 2016. The solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 left Cairo for Abu Dhabi on Saturday. (Photo/Xinhua)
An aircraft powered by solar energy left Egypt on Sunday on the last leg of the first ever fuel-free flight around the globe. Solar Impulse 2 took off from Cairo in darkness en route to Abu Dhabi, its final destination.
The plane, which began its journey in Abu Dhabi in March 2015, has been piloted in turns by Swiss aviators Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies.
Piccard says he expected the flight to take around two days.
"And all together it should be a 48 hour flight. So two days and two and a half nights. So its going to be an exhausting flight but you know we are trained for this, Andre and I, we have trained in a flight simulator. We have trained in all the last flights we have done so, this is OK."
Solar Impulse has no fuel on board. Its four engines are powered solely by energy collected from more than 17,000 solar cells in its wings.
It relies on solar energy collected during the day and stored in batteries to provide electrical energy to fly at night.
Last week, the solar-powered aircraft landed in Egypt on its penultimate stop. The flight's takeoff from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates was delayed due to a heatwave in Saudi Arabia.
