Solar Impulse 2 landed early Tuesday in China, the world's biggest carbon emitter, as it completed the fifth leg of its landmark circumnavigation of the globe powered solely by the sun.
With pilot Bertrand Piccard at the controls, the revolutionary plane landed in Chongqing airport at 1:35 am (1735 GMT Monday) after a 22-and-a-half hour flight from Myanmar, its vast wingspan lit up by rows of led lights.
The plane had been expected to make just a brief stop in the southwestern city and quickly travel on to Nanjing, about 270 kilometres (170 miles) from Shanghai, but that has been delayed due to weather and safety concerns, with the team now expecting to stay a few days waiting for better conditions for the trip east.
"In China it was demanding, this flight, especially for Bertrand but also for the team preparing two flights in a row and then this afternoon cancelling the second flight due to bad weather in Nanjing."
On a previous circumnavigation, Piccard passed over China in a specially designed balloon, but only after he flew to Beijing personally to negotiate the trip with conditions the balloon avoid large swaths of the country.
The flight from Mandalay to Chongqing was the most difficult, Raymond Clerc, flight director for Solar Impulse, said on a video interview on the project's website.
Ridiculed by the aviation industry when it was first unveiled, the venture has since been hailed around the world, including by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
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