YANGON: Solar Impulse 2 was met by dancers dressed in an elephant costume as it landed in Myanmar’s second largest city Mandalay, completing the fourth leg of its landmark circumnavigation of the globe powered solely by the sun.

The single-seater aircraft touched down at 7:51pm on Thursday, several hours earlier than expected, after a 13-hour journey from the Indian holy city Varanasi, cut short thanks to strong tail winds.

Pilot Bertrand Piccard flew the fourth leg of the 12-part journey, taking over from fellow Swiss aviator Andre Borschberg.

“A moment I will remember: touch down in #Myanmar,” Piccard tweeted shortly after landing.

“It was fabulous to have my wife Michhle and my daughter Estelle by my side at the landing in #Mandalay,” he added in a later post.

The Swiss adventurer had previously visited Myanmar in 1998 during another attempted round-the-world trip in the Breitling Orbiter 2 balloon.

Published in Dawn March 21st , 2015

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