The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft has completed an historic flight after circling the globe without so much as a drop of fuel, then touching down seemingly effortlessly in Hawaii.

The sun-powered plane, piloted by veteran Swiss aviator Andre Borschberg, spent five days to make the historic voyage, landing shortly after dawn on Friday at Kalaeloa Airport on the main Hawaiian island of Oahu.

The experimental plane touched down in Hawaii a little after 1600 GMT amid cheers and applause from the ground crew. Borschberg, all smiles, emerged a short time time later from the cockpit.

Sunlight glimmered on the horizon as the Solar Impulse ground crew burst into cheers and applause upon completion of the groundbreaking flight.

"The #solarteam made it. WE MADE IT, YOU MADE IT THANKS TO YOUR SUPPORT!"read a message posted under the Twitter handle solarimpulse.

The aircraft over the course of the journey set records for longest solo flight and most time in a solar-powered flight.

The flight tested its exhausted pilot to the limit, in what his team described as "difficult" conditions.

The whole trip from Japan to Hawaii took about four days and 22 hours, with the Swiss aviator taking catnaps of only 20 minutes at a time to maintain control of the pioneering plane.

Borschberg easily beat the previous longest solo endurance flight by Steve Fossett, who flew for 76 hours and 45 minutes in 2006.

Fellow pioneering aviator and rival Richard Branson tweeted his congratulations to Borschberg just before his competitor touched down.

"Congrats SolarImpulse, beating Virgin GlobalFlyer record non-stop solo flight without refuelling. Huge step forward."

Solar Impulse 2 set off from Abu Dhabi earlier this year in a multi-leg attempt to fly around the world without a single drop of fuel.