NEW YORK: The solar-powered aeroplane that began its globe-circling voyage more than a year ago in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) completed a trip across the United States(US) with a Statue of Liberty fly-by before landing in New York on Saturday. The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport at 4am after a 4-hour 41-minute flight of about 165 miles from Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania. Its trip across the US began when Solar Impulse landed in San Francisco from Hawaiion April 24. The pilots’ logbook read, “Si2 is now safe in New York, JFK airport … Our new home is Hangar 19 in John F. Kennedy International Airport!” Pilot Andre Borschberg flew the plane to New York and Pilot Bertrand Piccard will start the next leg of the journey. They expect to leave “soon” so they can cross the Atlantic Ocean for Europe or South Africa on their way to completing an aviation engineering feat to advance environmentally compatible technology. The Solar Impulse 2’s wings, which stretch wider than those of a Boeing 747, are equipped with 17,000 solar cells that power propellers and charge batteries.The plane runs on stored energy at night. The trip began in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi and made stops in Oman, Myanmar, China and Japan.