Solar-powered plane lands in Texas after record-breaking flight

DALLAS, May 23 (UPI) -- The Solar Impulse plane, in the second leg of a coast-to-coast flight, landed in Dallas early Thursday, breaking a distance record for solar-powered flight.

The Swiss-made aircraft took off from Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport at 7:47 a.m. ET and flew over Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas, landing at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at 2:08 a.m. ET Thursday.

Pilot Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse's co-founder, conducted interviews by radio while in the air.

"It's flying very well," he told NBC News a couple of hours after takeoff.

The flight took more than 18 hours and covered 830 miles, breaking the previous record of 693 miles for a single solar-powered flight set last year during a Solar Impulse flight from Switzerland to Spain.

After Dallas-Fort Worth, the next leg of the cross-country flight will be to St. Louis, and then to Washington, D.C.

The final leg of the trip, from Washington to New York, is expected to happen sometime around the Fourth of July.