SEVILLE: The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Spain on Thursday after completing a 71-hour flight from New York in the first “magical” solo transatlantic crossing in a solar-powered airplane.

Applause broke out as the experimental plane set down at Seville airport in southern Spain just before 7:40am where a team was on the ground to welcome Swiss pilot and adventurer Bertrand Piccard.

“It is so fantastic!”, Piccard told the plane’s mission control centre in Monaco in remarks broadcast online as the plane, which took off from New York on Monday, touched down.

Exhilarated, the 58-year-old said he had thought a lot about aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic, during the 6,765-kilometre flight.

“I met him when I was 11, we were both at the Apollo 12 take-off, and for me Lindbergh is one of these heroes who did what no one thought was possible,” Piccard said by phone.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016