By Haven Daley | The Huffington Post
A solar-powered plane that has wowed aviation fans in Europe took to the skies Friday over the San Francisco Bay area in a successful test flight.
Considered the world’s most advanced sun-powered plane, the Solar Impulse took off from Moffett Field in Mountain View at first light for a two-hour practice run in advance of a planned multi-city, cross-country tour.
“That’s a mythical step in aviation,” André Borschberg, one of the plane’s pilots and creators, said about flying cross-country. “We are something like between 1915 and 1920, compared to traditional aviation, when pioneers tried these non-stop flights.”
He said a flight around the world could occur in two years.
The Solar Impulse is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover massive wings and charge its batteries, allowing it to fly day and night without jet fuel. It has the wingspan of a commercial airplane but the weight of the average family car, making it vulnerable to bad weather.
