Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg completed the first solar-powered circumnavigation in Solar Impulse 2, departing Abu Dhabi on March 9, 2015 and returning there on July 26, 2016 after 17 legs. The aircraft, with 17,248 solar cells over a 72 m wingspan, covered about 42,000 km without fuel.
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Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg completed the first solar-powered circumnavigation in Solar Impulse 2, departing Abu Dhabi on March 9, 2015 and returning there on July 26, 2016 after 17 legs. The aircraft, with 17,248 solar cells over a 72 m wingspan, covered about 42,000 km without fuel.
The first circumnavigation of the Earth by a crewed aircraft powered solely by solar energy.
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Limits Registry. LR-FIRST-SOLAR-POWERED-CIRCUMNAVIGATION. First round-the-world flight by a solar-powered aircraft. 2026.