It took Borschberg two days and two nights to fly the 3,745-kilometre route from Seville to Cairo. Borschberg flew over the pyramids before landing in the Egyptian capital.
“This was an emotional and meaningful leg for me, being able to enjoy once more the incredible sensation of flying day and night thanks only to the energy of the sun and enjoying fully the present moment,” the co-founder and CEO of Solar Impulse said in a statement.
The initiator of the project is Bertrand Piccard, honourary president of the business association swisscleantech. “This landing in Cairo brings Solar Impulse back to the origin of my dream. Egypt is the country where I landed after my non-stop round the world balloon flight in 1999, and it’s precisely here that I had the idea of an airplane flying around the world on solar power,” said Piccard.
Piccard will step into the cockpit for the final leg to Abu Dhabi, when the weather is right. The solar adventure began in Abu Dhabi in March 2015 but was grounded in Hawaii over the winter because of damage caused to the battery system during the Pacific crossing.