Solar plane reaches California

Piloted by Swiss explorer and psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse 2 is scheduled to land in Mountain View about 11.30 p.m. PT (2.30 a.m. ET).
Images of the elegant solar aircraft, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but only weighs about as much as an SUV, flying over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay mark a significant achievement. The team has seen the project beset with problems and setbacks during its pioneering airborne circumnavigation.
The plane took off from Hawaii on Thursday, resuming a journey that had stalled on the island of Oahu for almost 10 months.
It lifted off just before sunrise Friday to cheers and applause. On arrival into the skies above California, it flew holding patterns for several hours above San Francisco Bay in celebration of the achievement.
As dusk fell over the city, the team posted striking images on its social media accounts.
Because the plane travels at about the same speed as a car, the Hawaii-California leg will take about 62 hours to complete.
While Piccard was at the controls for this ninth leg of the round-the-world trip, he and his business partner, Swiss engineer Andre Borschberg, take turns flying the plane solo.
The flight has benefited from a "very stable weather window," Solar Impulse spokeswoman Alexandra Gindroz said, and is expected to touch down on schedule.
The solar plane looks like a giant high-tech dragonfly and requires near-perfect conditions to fly.
After all, it's the weather -- particularly the sun -- that ultimately decides the schedule of this journey, even with dozens of engineers and experts monitoring the plane's every move.
"Nobody's done this before," managing director Gregory Blatt said. "There's no guidebook. There's no best practice."
The team has learned this the hard way.
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