The solar-powered
aeroplane Solar Impulse has landed in Silicon Valley, California, after a
three-day flight over the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii.
High winds
delayed the landing at Moffett Airfield, Mountain View, as pilot
Bertrand Piccard flew in a holding pattern off the coast. "The Pacific is done," he declared just before landing.
The latest leg of the round-the-world flight was the riskiest yet because of the lack of emergency landing sites.
Fellow pilot Andre Borschberg hugged Mr Piccard when he stepped from the cockpit.
Google boss Sergey Brin was also at the airfield to greet him. "It was a beautiful landing, we were right there watching," he said in a clip tweeted by the plane's media team.
Mr Piccard had talked earlier about the importance of linking "the project... with the pioneering spirit in Silicon Valley".
"You know there was a moment in the night, I was watching the reflection of the moon on the ocean and I was thinking `I'm completely alone in this tiny cockpit and I feel completely confident'," Mr Piccard told reporters afterwards.
"And I was really thankful to life for bringing me this experience, It's maybe this is one of the most fantastic experiences of life I've had."
With 17,000 photovoltaic cells on its top surfaces, the plane gets all its energy from the sun. These power the craft's propellers during the day but also charge batteries that the vehicle's motors can then call on during the night.
Solar Impulse started its journey in March of last year in Abu Dhabi, with the two pilots taking turns in the cockpit.
That five-day, five-night crossing set a record for the longest ever non-stop solo aeroplane journey.
A further 20m euros (£16m; $23m) had to be raised from supporters during the winter to keep the project going for another year
It was Mr Borschberg who flew into Kalaeloa last July and he will take the controls on the next leg across the US mainland.
The two Swiss pilots' intention is to reach New York by the start of June, to begin preparations for an Atlantic crossing.
Assuming this is completed successfully, it should then be a relatively straightforward run back to the "finish line" in Abu Dhabi.
Mr Piccard and Mr Borschberg have been working on the Solar Impulse project for more than a decade.
A plane wider than a 747 jumbo jet but that weighs just 2.3 tonnes poses some unique challenges:
- Low speed means mission legs can take several days and nights of continuous flight
- The pilot is permitted only catnaps of up to 20 minutes
- The cockpit is little bigger than a public telephone box
LEG 2: 10 March. Muscat (Oman) to Ahmedabad (India) - 1,593km; 15 Hours 20 Minutes
LEG 3: 18 March. Ahmedabad (India) to Varanasi (India) - 1,170km; 13 Hours 15 Minutes
LEG 4: 18 March. Varanasi (India) to Mandalay (Myanmar) - 1,536km; 13 Hours 29 Minutes
LEG 5: 29 March. Mandalay (Myanmar) to Chongqing (China) - 1,636km; 20 Hours 29 Minutes
LEG 6: 21 April. Chongqing (China) to Nanjing (China) - 1,384km; 17 Hours 22 Minutes
LEG 7: 30 May. Nanjing (China) to Nagoya (Japan) - 2,942km; 1 Day 20 Hours 9 Minutes
LEG 8: 28 June. Nagoya (Japan) to Kalaeloa, Hawaii (USA) - 8,924km; 4 Days 21 Hours 52 Minutes
LEG 9: 21 April. Kalaeloa, Hawaii (USA) to Mountain View, California (USA) - 4,200km; 62 Hours 29 Minutes
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