What is the name of the first piloted fixed-winged aircraft to circumnavigate the world using only solar power?
Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, and also the name of the project's two operational aircraft. The aircraft are single-seat monoplanes powered by photovoltaic cells; they are capable of taking off under their own power. The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard.
On March 9, 2015, Piccard and Borschberg began to circumnavigate the globe departing from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates with Solar Impulse 2. Solar Impulse 2 carries more solar cells and more power motors compared to the prototype Solar Impulse 1. By June 2015, the plane had traversed Asia,and in July 2015, it completed the longest leg of its journey, from Japan to Hawaii. During that leg, the aircraft's batteries sustained thermal damage that took months to repair. Solar Impulse 2 resumed the circumnavigation in April 2016, when it flew to California. It continued across the US until it reached New York City in June 2016. Later that month, the aircraft crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Spain. It stopped in Egypt before returning to Abu Dhabi on July 26, 2016 completing the first circumnavigation (approx. 26,000 miles) of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power.
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