Solar Impulse 2 begins journey across Atlantic

The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft was flying over the western Atlantic Monday morning on one of the most difficult legs of its record-breaking bid to cross the globe using only solar energy.

The plane, which took off from New York’s JFK airport at around 2:30 am, is piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, who is expected to spend approximately 90 hours — during which he will take only short naps — crossing the Atlantic.

“It’s my first time taking off from JFK,” Piccard said over a live feed from the aircraft as he headed off into the night sky en route to Spain’s Seville Airport.

Several hours later he posted on Twitter that despite a previous full moon there is “now a pink sky in front of me, the day is waking up.”

The voyage marks the first solo transatlantic crossing in a solar-powered airplane and is expected to last four consecutive days and nights, depending on weather.

The plane, which is no heavier than a car but has the wingspan of a Boeing 747, is being flown on its 35,000-kilometre trip by two pilots taking turns, Piccard and Swiss entrepreneur Andre Borschberg.

“I’m in the cockpit this time, but we’re flying together,” Piccard told Borschberg before takeoff. The pair have flown varying legs of the journey, with Borschberg piloting the flight’s final Pacific stage, a 6,437-kilometre flight between Japan and Hawaii. The 118-hour leg smashed the previous record for the longest uninterrupted journey in aviation history. The plane, now on the 15th leg of its east-west trip, set out on March 9, 2015.