Solar Impulse 2
Solar Impulse 2, seen above the Pyramids of Giza on its approach to Cairo, Egypt.
CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Solar Impulse 2 aircraft lands at Sevilla airport on June 23, 2016, after a 71-hour journey from New York powered only by sunlight.
CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
The Spanish Air Force's Patrulla Aguila formation team performs past the sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 aircraft arriving few moments before landing at Sevilla airport on June 23, 2016.
Solar Impulse/Revillard/Rezo.ch
Solar Impulse 2 sits on the runway at JFK international airport prior to departing to cross the Atlantic on June 20, 2016.
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Solar Impulse 2 flies over the Golden Gate Bridge as part of a fly-by of the San Francisco Bay after flying for two and half days from Hawaii.
JEAN REVILLARD/REZO
Solar Impulse 2 departs Hawaii for the two-and-a-half day flight to California, the 9th leg of its round-the-world trip.
JEAN REVILLARD/REZO
Pilot Bertrand Piccard prepares to take off from Kalaeloa Airport, Hawaii on April 21st 2016, en route to California. The round-the-world solar flight will take 500 flight hours and cover 35,000 km.
Marco Garcia/AP
The Solar Impulse 2 is seen at the Kalaeloa Airport in Kapolei, Hawaii, on Friday, July 3. The solar-powered plane, alternately piloted by Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, is attempting to fly around the world without fuel.
Jean Revillard/Solar Impulse 2/AP
Borschberg approaches Honolulu Airport on July 3 after a record-breaking five-day journey across the Pacific Ocean from Japan.
SOLAR IMPULSE/AFP/Getty Images
Solar Impulse is seen at sunrise on Monday, June 29, shortly after taking off from the international airport in Nagoya, Japan. The aircraft's Japan-to-Hawaii trip was the most ambitious leg of its quest to circumnavigate the globe powered only by the sun.
Jean Revillard/SI2/Global Newsroom/Getty Images
The solar-powered plane prepares to take off from Nagoya on June 29.
TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images
A mobile hangar is opened on Tuesday, June 23, as the plane is prepared for a possible takeoff. The plane had been waiting in Japan for three weeks because of bad weather.
TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images
The mobile hangar at the Nagoya airport, as seen on Wednesday, June 3.
TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images
The Solar Impulse 2 touches down in Nagoya on Monday, June 1. The plane made an unscheduled stop after mission controllers decided the weather was not right for the plane to cross the Pacific Ocean.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images
People take pictures as the plane takes off from Nanjing, China, on Sunday, May 31.
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Piccard sits in the cockpit right after landing in Chongqing, China, on Sunday, March 31. He had just completed the fifth leg of the global trip.
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Borschberg and Piccard are welcomed by a crowd of reporters after landing in Chongqing.
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The Solar Impulse 2 is rolled out of its inflatable mobile hangar before leaving Myanmar for Chongqing on Monday, March 30.
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The plane is prepared on a tarmac in Ahmedabad, India, on Wednesday, March 18.
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The Solar Impulse 2 flies over Muscat, Oman, after taking off on Tuesday, March 10.
Jean Revillard/Getty Images
The plane takes off from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Monday, March 9. Its flight to Oman was the first leg of its round-the-world flight.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
The plane is the brainchild of Swiss pilots Piccard, right, and Borschberg.
© Solar Impulse | Revillard | Rezo.ch
The top surface of the Solar Impulse 2's wings is covered with 17,000 solar cells that supply four electric motors with renewable energy. Its batteries can store enough solar daytime energy to keep the plane moving throughout the night.
© Solar Impulse
The plane's wings stretch for a massive 72 meters (236 feet).
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
The plane's cockpit has been designed to ensure that a pilot can live there for a week.
DOMINIC FAVRE/AFP/Getty Images/file
Solar Impulse 2 is the upgraded version of a prototype, pictured here, that made history in 2010 by becoming the first solar aircraft capable of flying overnight.
JEAN REVILLARD/AFP/Getty Images/file
Solar Impulse 1, pictured here over Lake Geneva, broke several records, including the world's first fully solar-powered intercontinental flight in 2012.
© Solar Impulse | Revillard | Rezo.ch
Borschberg is an engineer who studied management science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The aviation enthusiast has been involved in several startups and technology projects over the years.
© Solar Impulse | Revillard | Rezo.ch
Piccard, who is also a doctor and a psychiatrist, is the first man to fly around the world non-stop in a balloon. He hails from a family of scientists and explorers.
© Piccard Family
Piccard's grandfather, Auguste Piccard, was a physics professor who helped pave the way for high-altitude navigation by inventing the pressurized cabin. He was also the first person to reach the stratosphere in a balloon.
© Piccard Family
Piccard's father, Jacques, was the first man to dive to the bottom of the Marianas Trench -- the deepest point of the world's oceans.

Story highlights

The solar plane's global tour began 17 months ago

It is headed to the United Arab Emirates, where it started its journey

CNN  — 

The end is in sight.

Solar-powered Solar Impulse 2 took off from Cairo early Sunday on the final leg of its global tour – the first time in history an aircraft of its kind has achieved a round-the-world flight using no fuel.

The plane is en route to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, where its epic journey originated over a year ago.

It’s piloted by Bertrand Piccard, one of two pilots who have alternated on the journey’s 17 legs around the globe.

By the time he touches down in the Emirates, he and pilot Andre Borschberg will have traveled a total of 35,000 km (21,748 miles).

The lightweight aircraft, which only weighs as much as an SUV but has the wingspan of a Boeing 747, sits on the cusp of completing its milestone journey using only the power of the sun’s rays.

The plane had earlier secured a place in the record books by being the first plane to cross the Atlantic – from New York’s JFK airport to Seville in Spain, then also piloted by Piccard – without a single drop of fuel.

A peek into the Solar Impulse 2 cockpit in a historic trans-Atlantic flight

It also set the record for the longest solo flight – five days and five nights – without fuel, from Nagoya in Japan to Hawaii.

Solar Impulse 2
An infographic released by Solar Impulse detailing the route of the aircraft's final leg.

01:03 - Source: CNN
On board Solar Impulse 2

Inspiration

01:24 - Source: CNN
Solar Impulse 2 pilot recounts historic flight

Piccard had been preparing for the flight for “years and years,” saying he’d been long inspired by the pioneers who wanted to cross the Atlantic to prove their way of transportation was mature.

“I met (American aviator) Charles Lindbergh when I was a child. I saw the balloons, the airships, the hot air balloons, steamboats – you know, every means of transportation wanted to cross the Atlantic, and now for the first time it’s a solar-powered airplane,” he said.

“What I’d like to show with my team is that clean technology today is showing incredible goals. You can fly now longer without fuel than with fuel, and you fly with the force of nature, you fly with the sun. It’s the new era now for energy and this is really what we’d like to inspire people to do,” he said.

The Solar Impulse 2 project is the brainchild of Piccard and Borschberg, a Swiss engineer and businessman. The aircraft is a single-seater, so the two men have shared the flying by taking different legs of the journey.

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The plane – powered 100% by the sun – has completed 16 legs of its journey, and on course to complete the final one in about two days.

It was originally supposed to land in Abu Dhabi, where it began the trip in March 2015, by the end of last summer.

But a series of frustrating weather delays in China slowed progress for weeks, followed by an unexpected diversion to Japan, where the aircraft was damaged on the tarmac by a storm.

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