A solar-powered plane on the riskiest leg of a round-the-globe bid is closing in on Hawaii after a record-breaking flight which has tested its exhausted pilot to the limit in "difficult" conditions.
Veteran Swiss aviator Andre Borschberg, who has spent more than four days flying from Japan in the Solar Impulse 2, is expected to land on the Pacific US island state early Friday if all goes well.
By 0200 GMT the plane had traveled 91 percent of the way to the tropical US state, having flown 7,471 kilometers (4,642 miles), with just 700 kilometers to go -- barely 12 hours of flying time, in theory.
More importantly, it had crossed a last cold weather front before Hawaii, which organizers described as "jumping over the wall" before the final stretch towards the Pacific archipelago.
The pioneering plane is due to land Friday morning local time at Kalaeloa Airport on the main Hawaiian island of Oahu.
The organizers' latest estimate for arrival is 1600 GMT, although that could change depending on conditions.
So far Borschberg has flown more than 104 hours -- easily beating the previous longest solo endurance flight by Steve Fossett, who flew for 76 hours and 45 minutes in 2006.
The whole trip from Japan to Hawaii was expected to take 120 hours.
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