NEW YORK — The pilots of a solar-powered airplane on a globe-circling voyage that began more than a year ago said their flight over the Statue of Liberty before landing in New York inspired them on their mission to promote a world free from reliance on fossil fuels.
“Today, liberty is about finding and promoting renewable sources of power,” said Bertrand Piccard, the initiator and one of the pilots of the Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2.
“Our mission is to demonstrate that just the energy of the sun can give us enough power to fly day and night.”
Piccard and Andre Borschberg, who flew the plane to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, arrived Saturday from Pennsylvania at 4 a.m. after a 4 hour-41-minute flight.
“It was really gorgeous,” Borschberg said of the aerial view of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. “I felt like I was a young child in front of a Christmas tree.”
Their trip across the U.S. mainland began April 24, when Solar Impulse landed in Mountain View, California, after flying over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on its way from Hawaii.
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