BEIJING: Solar Impulse 2 landed late on Tuesday in the Chinese city of Nanjing, finishing the sixth stage of its landmark 12-leg quest to circumnavigate the globe powered only by the sun.
With pilot Bertrand Piccard at the controls, the pioneering single-seater aircraft touched down at 11:31 pm, after a 17-hour trip from the southwestern megacity of Chongqing some 1,190 kilometres away.
Its arrival came after repeated meteorological delays and its other Swiss co-pilot, Andre Borschberg, returned to Europe to be treated for migraines.
Borschberg is expected to return to China by Friday, a Solar Impulse 2 spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Wishing good health recovery to my friend (Andre Borschberg),” Piccard said in a Twitter message sent on Tuesday morning as he flew high above China’s Yangtze River. “He should have flown this leg.”
Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2015
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