A solar powered plane successfully flew throughout the night this week and safely landed in Switzerland.
Despite the absence of the sun, the experimental craft flew for a total of 26 hours, successfully landing at Payerne airport, near the Swiss capital of Berne, at 9 o’clock local time (0700 GMT) on Wednesday (7 July).
The Solar Impulse plane reached heights of 8,700 metres during its flight using its efficient solar cells and batteries. It was the stored energy in the plane’s batteries which allowed it to continue flight after the sun had faded. It marks the longest, highest flight ever made by a solar-powered craft.
It’s the first time a manned solar plane has flown throughout the night, although the Impulse has made previous, shorter journeys as part of its tests.
When it landed, the craft, with a 63 metre wingspan, still had three hours worth of unused power stored in its batteries, much more than was expected.
The craft, designed and flown by a team led by former Swiss fighter jet pilot Andre Borschberg, has 12,000 solar cells arranged on its huge wingspan.
The team now aim to build a new, more advanced, model of the plane so they can achieve their goal to circumnavigate the globe by 2013 using solar power.
The journey proves the some of the potential of solar power, which has been used to operate prototype cars too. It could provide a useful source of energy for electricity production to power electric cars.
