Solar Impulse an experimental solar-powered plane completed its first 24-hour test flight successfully.proves that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night.The test brings the Swiss-led project one step closer to its goal of circling the globe using only energy from the sun.Pilot Andre Borschberg eased the Solar Impulse out of the clear blue morning sky onto the runway at Payerne airfield in switzerland.Previous flights included a brief "flea hop" and a longer airborne test earlier this year, but this week's attempt wasdescribed as a "milestone" by the team and comes after seven years of planning.
The team says it has now demonstrated that the single-seat plane can theoretically stay in the air indefinitely,recharging its depleted batteries using 12,000 solar cells and nothing but the rays of the sun during the day.
The team will now start to build a second solar plane that will be more efficient and have a larger cockpit to allow forlonger flights. That plane should be ready for international flights by 2013.
Borschberg took off from Payerne airfield shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday, allowing the plane to soak up the sunshineas he flew gentle loops over the Jura mountains west of the Swiss Alps.
The custom-built aircraft with its thin fuselage and the wingspan of a Boeing 777 passenger jet managed to climb to28,000 feet (8,535 meters) and reached top speeds of over 75 mph (120 kph).Borschberg, a 57-year-old former Swiss fighter who was wearing a parachute — just in case — dodged low-levelturbulence and thermal winds, endured freezing conditions during the night and ended the test flight with a picture-perfect landing to cheers and whoops from hundreds of supporters on the ground.