Solar Impulse Electric Plane Will Fly Across America

The experimental solar-powered plane Solar Impulse, created by Swiss inventors Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg ,is reportedly headed for the United States where it will fly coast-to-coast. The "Across America" tour lifts off in May, says a report in the Huffington Post.

The duo's Solar Impulse currently holds the record for the longest flight by a manned solar-powered aircraft, flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters for more than 26 hours. The plane, which uses no traditional fuel whatsoever, operates on four propeller engines that are powered by 12,000 solar cells attached to the craft's massive wings. While it isn't the first plane to ever be powered solely by the sun, it is the first to fly both at day and at night.

The craft has the wing span of a commercial plane to accomodate the large amount of photovoltaic cells, but weights only as much as a family car.

About three years ago, Solar Impulse flew 26 hours non-stop, to prove it could generate enough energy from the sun during the day to remain powered at night to demonstrate that the aircraft could soak up enough sunlight to keep it airborne through the night.

Last year, Solar Impulse flew 2,500 kilometers from Madrid, Spain, to the Moroccan capital city of Rabat in 20 hours, the plane's first transcontinental voyage. Before the upcoming American transcontinental trip, Solar Impulse is scheduled for some flight testing in April around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Piccard and Borschberg have told reporters they are planning to fly around the globe in an improved Solar Impulse in about two years.

Piccard --- who hails from a family of high adventurers including his grandfather, Auguste, the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere --- said he never really thought about creating a zero-fuel plane until the balloon he was piloting during a previous around-the-world endeavor ran out of fuel and crash-landed in the Egyptian desert. That day he said he made a promise that the next time he would fly around the world it would be with no fuel at all.

While it is Piccard and Borschberg's intent to show fuel-free air travel is possible, their plane is not meant to demonstrate a possible replacement for kerosene-powered airplanes. There is an unlimited supply of kerosene anyway since it can be synthetisized, and similar burnable fuels can even be made by using renewable electricity, likely from large wind farms.

But the Solar Impulse project demonstrates the power and capability that photovoltaic power generation has already reached today, and it will become much more efficient with new technologies currently in the pipeline, most notable nanotechnological optimizations. The plane is meant to promote these new energy technologies and inspire young people across Europe, now America, and soon around the world with a second generation plane.