Having solar-powered planes flying over us is a big step toward cleaning up our Mother Earth. The sooner we get to fly these planes, the better.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Corporate Communications website reports:
The prototype of a solar energy-powered plane has been designed and should make its first piloted flight late next year, the Swiss project leaders say.
The reduced-size model, which has a 61m wingspan, is now being built in northern Switzerland to test the technology involved in the full-size Solar Impulse aircraft.
If the first flight is successful, the 1.5-tonne plane will make a 36-hour flight through the night in 2009, piloted by round-the-world ballooning pioneer Bertrand Piccard.
