New Zealand strait crossed for first time by electric plane

The ElectricAir plane is on approach before landing at Wellington Airport in Wellington, New Zealand, Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. Seeking to highlight the potential for green aviation as a pivotal climate change conference opened in Glasgow, New Zealand pilot Gary Freedman made the first-ever flight over Cook Strait in an electric plane. (Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP)

A pilot has made history by becoming the first person to fly across New Zealand’s Cook Strait in an electric plane.

Gary Freedman’s 40-minute solo flight in the small two-seater plane came 101 years after the first person flew a conventional aircraft over the body of water that separates the South Pacific nation’s two main islands.