Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range solar powered plane project being undertaken at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. The project eventually hopes to succeed in the first circling of the earth with a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power. The project is promoted by Bertrand Piccard, who co-piloted the first balloon to circle the world non-stop.[1] http://www.solarimpulse.com The first aircraft, bearing the Swiss aircraft registration code of HB-SIA, is a single-seater, capable of taking off under its own power, and intended to remain airborne up to 36 hours.[2] This aircraft first flew an entire diurnal solar cycle, including nearly 9 hours of night flying, in a 26-hour flight on 7–8 July 2010.[3] Building on the experience of this prototype, a slightly larger follow-on design (HB-SIB) is planned to make circumnavigation of the globe in 20–25 days.[4]On 7 April 2010 the HB-SIA underwent an extended 87 minute test flight piloted by Markus Scherdel. In contrast to earlier tests, the April flight reached an altitude of 1,200 m (3,937 ft).[13][14] The aircraft first flew on purely solar power, charging its batteries in flight, on 28 May 2010.[15] [edit] First overnight flight Wikinews has related news: Solar-powered plane completes 26-hour flight On 8 July 2010, HB-SIA achieved the world's first manned 26-hour solar flight.[16][17][18] The airplane was flown by André Borschberg and took off at 6:51 a.m. Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) on 7 July from an airfield in Payerne, Switzerland. It returned for a landing the following morning at 9:00 a.m. local time.[19] The plane reached a maximum altitude of 8,700 m (28,500 ft) during its flight.[20] The flight was the longest and highest flight by a manned solar-powered aircraft, records officially recognized by the FAI in October 2010.[21][22] [edit] First international flights On 13 May 2011, at approximately 21:30 local time, HB-SIA landed at Brussels (Zaventem) airport, after having completed a flight from its home base in Switzerland. It was the first international flight by the Solar Impulse, at an average altitude of 6,000 ft (1,829 m) during the 13-hour flight, for a distance of 630 km (391 mi), with an average speed of 50 km/h (31 mph). The aircraft's slow cruising speed required operating at a mid-altitude, that allowed much faster air traffic to be routed around it.[23] The pilot was Solar Impulse co-founder Andre Borschberg. The project's other co-founder, Bertrand Piccard, said in an interview after the landing: "Our goal is to create a revolution in the minds of people...to promote solar energies -- not necessarily a revolution in aviation."[24][25] A second international flight to the Paris Air Show was attempted on 12 June 2011, but the plane turned back half-way and landed back in Brussels, where it had taken off, due to the weather conditions. [26] In a second attempt, the solar plane HB-SIA, with pilot André Borschberg, landed in Paris Le Bourget on Tuesday 14 June at 9:15 pm after an 16:05 hours long flight. [27] [edit] Planned second aircraft (HB-SIB) HB-SIB is the Swiss registration code borne by the second Solar Impulse aeroplane. The aircraft is planned for completion in 2011, with a pressurized cockpit and advanced avionics to allow for transcontinental and trans-oceanic flights.[5] The wingspan of HB-SIB will be 80.0 m (262.5 ft), slightly wider than the 79.75 m (261.6 ft) wingspan of an Airbus A380, the largest passenger airliner in the world.[28] The cockpit will include cabin pressurization, supplemental oxygen and various environmental support to the pilot to allow a cruise altitude of 12,000 metres (39,000 ft).[28] The team hopes that a round-the-world flight will be possible in 2012. The flight would circle the world in the northern hemisphere near the equator. Five stops are planned to change pilots. Each leg will last three to four days, limited by the physiology of the human pilot.[5] Once improved battery efficiency makes it possible to reduce the weight, a two-seater is envisaged to make a non-stop circumnavigation.[5]