Salé – Solar Impulse, an aircraft powered entirely by the sun, made the world’s first solar-powered intercontinental flight when it landed in Rabat-Salé airport at 23:30 (22:30 GMT).
Piloted by the Swiss Bernard Piccard, the aircraft took off from Madrid-Barajas airport at 5:22 (3:22 GMT).
The experimental solar-powered plane had arrived in Madrid from Switzerland in late May on its first intercontinental flight attempt.
Solar Impulse HB-SIA is the first aircraft that can fly day and night without fuel or polluting emissions. It demonstrates the huge potential of new technologies in terms of energy reduction and the production of renewable energy.
This revolutionary carbon fiber aircraft, that has the wingspan of an Airbus A340 (63.4m) and the weight of an average family car (1,600kg), is the result of seven intense years of work, calculations, simulations and tests by a team of 70 people and 80 partners.
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