The single-person solar-powered aircraft piloted by a Swiss adventurer, has landed in St. Louis, Missouri on the third leg of a transcontinental flight after over 21 hours in the air.
The organizer's ground crew rushed out on the tarmac of the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport when the aircraft, which has four electric engines and a 63 meter wingspan, landed at 0627 GMT.
"I feel (like) I was coming back from another world," said pilot Bertrand Piccard upon landing. "It's almost a shock" to return to normal life.
Despite the long hours "I didn't really feel the fatigue. I felt very fortunate to be up there."
The landing was broadcast live on the organizer's website, live.solarimpulse.com.
Piccard departed the Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas aboard the Solar Impulse at 0906 GMT Monday on the third of a five-stop journey across the United States aimed at showcasing the potential of renewable energy technologies.
St. Louis was chosen as the Midwest stopover to pay homage to aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh and his "Spirit of St. Louis," the first plane to fly from New York to Paris non-stop.
The Texas-Missouri leg was Piccard's longest flight in the single-seat cockpit to date.
Powerful storms that hit the St. Louis, Missouri area late Friday rendered Solar Impulse's airport hangar unusable, so organizers deployed what they described as a "revolutionary" inflatable mobile hangar.
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