It’s taken more than 16 months, but a project to fly around the world using nothing but solar power is about to reach its conclusion.
The Solar Impulse 2 plane is set to touch down in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, at 4am local time tomorrow (8pm EDT today, 1am BST tomorrow), after a flight from Cairo, Egypt, lasting 48 hours.
The single-seater plane, as wide as a jumbo jet but as light as a car, has been flown by its two Swiss pilots André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard in alternating legs. In total, since the plane took off from Abu Dhabi at the start of its journey on March 9, 2015, it has made 15 stops around the world, from India to China to the US, and now back to where it started.
The project was supposed to be completed last year, but battery issues after a five-day trek across the Pacific meant it was delayed for 10 months. Now, after flying more than 30,000 kilometers (19,000 miles), the mission is about to reach its conclusion.
You can catch all the final moments of the final flight in the live stream below, and we’ll have a full write-up after it touches down at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
