Solar Powered Plane Begins Journey Across US

A solar-powered aeroplane takes off from Northern California on the first leg of a planned journey to four US cities. The "Solar Impulse" is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cellsthat cover massive wings and charge its batteries, allowing it to fly day and night without jet fuel. It will visit Phoenix, Dallas, Washington and New York. "All the big pioneers of the 20th century have tried to fly coast-to-coast, east to west or west to east, across America. It's one of the milestones," said co-pilot Bertrand Piccard, "so now today we're trying to do this but on solar power with no fuel with thefirst airplane that is able to fly dayand night just on solar power." Each flight leg will take 20 to 25 hours, with 10-day stops in each city. "Our priority is not the speed. Ourpriority is the duration, to be able to fly as long as we wish just on solar power," said Piccard. The plane's low weight makes it vulnerable to bad weather, and itscreators say solar planes will never replace fuel-powered commercial flights. Co-creator Andre Borschberg saidthe goal of this trip is to showcase the potential of solar power. "You can fly the entire day, climb to 30 thousand feet, which is the altitude of the airliners. You can fill up the batteries. If you land at the end of the day, you have full batteries and you could give this energy to the grid. You can fly an entire day and produce energy at the same time," he said. The plane has already wowed aviation fans in Europe. Source: APTN