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The Swiss-made Solar Impulse airplane suffered some damage during its Washington-to-New York flight on Saturday, forcing a slightly early end to its coast-to-coast, solar-powered odyssey.
Solar Impulse's mission team said they identified an 8-foot-long (2.5-meter-long) tear in the fabric on the lower side of the plane's left wing.
"The pilot, Andre Borschberg, is not in danger and the condition of the aircraft is currently stable," the team said in an advisory issued Saturday afternoon. Nevertheless, mission managers made plans for a landing at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at 11 p.m. ET Saturday, rather than at 2 a.m. ET Sunday, as originally scheduled.
Solar Impulse took off from Washington's Dulles International Airport at 4:46 a.m. ET, and spent most of its time flying in high circles at a waiting point over the Atlantic Ocean, off New Jersey, waiting for JFK's air traffic to die down. The Swiss-built, solar-powered plane's top speed is around 45 mph (72 kilometers), but even at that speed, there were plenty of hours to spare for the 228-mile (336-kilometer) trip.
Waiting game
The "Across America" odyssey began with a flight from Moffett Field, near San Francisco, to Phoenix on May 3, and continued with hops to Dallas-Fort Worth, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Washington. For most of its U.S. flights, the plane had to leave early and wait until late to land, so as to reduce the potential for disrupting commercial air traffic.
Solar Impulse
A tear in the fabric on the underside of the Solar Impulse airplane's wing forced a slightly early end to the final flight of its two-month-long "Across America" odyssey.
Saturday's long wait time provided plenty of opportunities for Borschberg to participate in media interviews and a video hangout with such luminaries as James Cameron, the famed film director and ocean explorer; and Erik Lindbergh, the grandson of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh.
There was also time to reflect on the meaning of Solar Impulse's odyssey: The effort's Swiss backers have put up ?90 million ($115 million) over the past decade to back the project, which is aimed at demonstrating technologies ranging from solar-power generation and storage to ultra-light composite materials.
Solar Impulse weighs as much as an automobile, but has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Scooter-type electric motors drive the single-seat plane's propellers. All of the power comes from almost 12,000 solar cells installed on its wings and horizontal stabilizer. Excess electricity is stored in 800 pounds' (363 kilograms') worth of batteries, so the plane can theoretically fly day and night.
"We have an airplane which has almost unlimited endurance," Borschberg told NBC News. "This airplane could have flown directly from California to New York, so it?s fully sustainable in terms of energy. The limiting factor is the pilot."
Borschberg, Solar Impulse's co-founder and CEO, has been sharing the pilot's duties with Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, the venture's other co-founder and chairman. Piccard is already in the record books for the first-ever nonstop balloon flight around the world in 1999 (which he flew along with Brian Jones). He and Borschberg have been flying the Solar Impulse prototype in Europe and Africa over the past couple of years.
The "Across America" project is seen as setting the stage for a round-the-world series of flights in 2015, using a more advanced solar-powered plane that's currently under construction.
Clean tech on the ground
Piccard has said that solar-powered planes could conceivably go commercial within five years or so, but Borschberg emphasized the potential applications for clean-energy technologies on the ground.
"All the partners who are involved with this project developed technologies not for the aviation world, but for their own customers," he told NBC News. "The customers are maybe homebuilding, maybe the automobile industry, maybe appliances. That?s what they are looking for, and that?s what?s slowly taking place. So if part of the legacy could be to show a way how to increase the efficiency of what we do and reduce the energy consumption but keeping the same quality of life, that would be a wonderful achievement for the project."
Cameron, who is as proud of his ocean adventures as he is of his blockbuster films "Titanic" and "Avatar," paid tribute to Borschberg and Piccard during Saturday's Google+ Hangout.
"What Solar Impulse stands for is renewable energy ? not just electric aircraft, but use of solar power in general, and this is something that?s going to be fundamental and critical to the survival of the human race," Cameron said. "You've got people that are standing for something, committing themselves, putting their personal asses on the line to make a point for the betterment of human civilization, and I greatly applaud that."
The consciousness-raising is due to continue after Sunday's landing: Borschberg and Piccard will participate in a NASDAQ opening-bell ceremony and are to meet with U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon on Tuesday.
More about the Solar Impulse odyssey:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following@b0yle on Twitter and adding +Alan Boyle to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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