Solar plane lands in N.Y. after circling Statue of Liberty
Solar Impulse 2, carrying Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg, arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport after a roughly five-hour trip from Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The statue "symbolizes US values - liberty of pioneers, liberty to explore, liberty to invent," Borschberg wrote on Twitter while flying over the iconic statue in New York Harbor.
Flying over the statue "we pay tribute to the special welcome we received here," he added in a later tweet.
The aircraft, operated by two alternating pilots, has a 72-meter wingspan and about 17,000 solar panels built into the wings to supply electricity.
Borschberg's partner on the zero-fuel plane project, Bertrand Piccard, will now take over for the Atlantic leg.
The round-the-world journey is being undertaken using only energy from the sun. The plane began its trip from the United Arab Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi in March last year.
It has since stopped over in countries including India, Myanmar and China before landing in Hawaii last July 3 following a record-breaking nonstop solo flight of nearly 118 hours from Nagoya, Japan.
Solar Impulse 2 arrived in California on April 23 after being grounded in Hawaii for more than nine months due to battery damage from overheating.
The flight from Allentown to New York was the plane's 14th leg of the journey around the globe and fifth across the U.S. mainland.
