This moment marked history. Under a clear New York sky, Si2 was flying over the Statue of Liberty. The flight took 75 minutes. 

On 24th of May an incident with the mobile hangar came in the way of Bertrand Piccard's takeoff from Dayton, Ohio to Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. André and Bertrand explain the situation:

As you might already know, the mobile hangar is a structure that is unique to Solar Impulse, created specifically to protect Si2 from rain, wind, and storms. It's used when regular hangars are unavailable to us and is inflated thanks to fans that supply air to keep it upright.

According to Solar Impulse blog, it all happened within seconds. As soon as the hangar started deflating, Nils Ryser, a head of ground crew, immediately reacted. He quickly identified the problem, coming from the electric board. In a few seconds the faulty circuit-breaker was restarted and the mobile hangar started re-inflating. "In about two minutes, the top part of the structure had already deflated and touched the fuselage and the wings before power was restored to the fans." Nils Ryser, head of ground crew.

After hours of calculation during the night, jointly made by the engineering team in Dayton, Ohio and in Dübendorf, Switzerland, it became certain there had been no damage to the aircraft. What a relief for the whole team after a tense afternoon and night! The second day, on May 25th, Solar iMpulse was in the air again. Flying to Lehigh Valley and landed at the gate of New York City in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania at 12:49 AM UTC, 2:49 AM CET on May 26th. 

Due to unforeseen gusty wind conditions they've decided not to fly on June 2nd. "The weather analysis prior to the takeoff indicated a change in our predictions, with showers marking the flight path to New York. Prior to our decision to give the green light to fly to JFK, we were aware of potential showers closing in behind the Si2 flight path, however they came faster and have intensified beyond what we could have anticipated."

But the day of took off has come and it was today! Congratulation guys!

June 11, 2016 Driving photo: Solaris

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