A new era of aviation is just around the corner. Solar Impulse HB-SIA, the experimental solar-powered aircraft, will be making its first attempt to fly round-the-clock fueled by nothing but solar energy, today. Aiming to cross the oceans, transcontinental and round the world flights by 2013 or 2014, the Solar Impulse project started back in 2003. The Swiss team with a plan to eventually tour the globe using the energy of the sun is out on a 24-hour test flight, which aims to keep the aircraft operating through the night on stored energy collected from the sun.
In total, the solar-powered plane will be undertaking three test flights across Switzerland. Today, this green plane will take off for the first flight from western Switzerland’s military airbase of Payerne and land at Geneva international airport. The second test flight is planned from Geneva to northern Switzerland’s Zurich International Airport, while for the third it will fly back to Payerne.
