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A Plane Just Flew Around The World... Without A Single Drop Of Fuel

July 27, 2016

Only one year after it first took flight, a solar-powered plane has completed an epic around-the-world trip without burning a single drop of fuel.

The revolutionary zero-fuel aircraft, Solar Impulse 2, is piloted by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard. The two have been developing the plane for over a decade to promote clean technologies.

Solar Impulse / Twitter

The Solar Impulse 2 touched down Tuesday morning in Abu Dhabi, at the same airport where it embarked back in March 2015.

Over the last 16 months, Piccard and Borschberg took turns flying the aircraft nearly 27,000 miles, tallying eight world records along the way.

Solar Impulse / Twitter

"We have traveled 40,000 kilometers without fuel. Now it's your turn to take it further," Piccard said. "We have enough solutions, enough technologies. We should never accept the world to be polluted only because people are scared to think in another way. The future is clean, the future is you, the future is now."

Solar Impulse / Twitter

The Huffington Post reports:

"The aircraft is made mostly of carbon fiber and is powered by 17,248 solar cells attached to its wings, which recharge four lithium polymer batteries. Despite its 236-foot wingspan, it weighs roughly the same as a Ford Explorer ― nearly 200 times lighter than a Boeing 747. It reaches a top speed of 90 mph."

Watch the video of the final landing below: