The legendary solar-powered plane ended its flight in a crash
Solar Impulse 2 crashed during a test flight in the U.S. after a sudden loss of power. The aircraft was destroyed, there were no injuries, and the project itself has effectively come to an end as an experimental platform, according to Gizmodo.
Solar Impulse 2 was created in 2015 by Swiss researchers Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg as an ambitious experiment—to prove that an airplane could fly using only solar energy. The aircraft became a true symbol of engineering boldness: with a wingspan of about 70 meters, a weight of just over two tons, thousands of solar panels, and complete dependence on weather and sunlight.
Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg called this aircraft a “laboratory of the future,” and its round-the-world flight became one of the most high-profile technological experiments of the decade.
After 2019, the project changed hands—Solar Impulse 2 was acquired by Skydweller Aero, which reoriented it toward other tasks, including long-term surveillance. It was in this configuration that the aircraft made its final flight, which ended in a “catastrophic loss of power” and a crash into the water. According to U.S. security services, the incident occurred on May 4 during an autonomous test over the Gulf of Mexico.
The project’s creators do not hide their emotional reaction, noting that they only learned of the incident after the fact. They emphasized that they have lost an important chapter in their technological history, one that was once intended to become part of a museum exhibition in Switzerland.
Despite the dramatic ending, Solar Impulse 2 will go down in aviation history as one of the most radical experiments in the field of “green” energy, demonstrating not only the possibilities but also the limits of modern technology.
The U.S. Navy has completed a 73-hour test flight of the Skydweller unmanned aerial vehicle, which operates exclusively on solar power. The tests took place at an airbase in Mississippi with the participation of Skydweller Aero and the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division.
In the U.S., in central California, a Navy F-35 fighter jet crashed on Wednesday near the Lemur Naval Air Station.
