Solar Impulse completes first solar-powered international flight, Captain Piccard returns to earth

We’re big fans of charming, ungainly Solar Impulse , and of Captain Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg’s quest to circumnavigate the globe in a solar-powered plane. In the event you missed the live stream : the Swiss flier just got a bit towards that goal by completing its first international flight, starting up near Berne, Switzerland and landing in Brussels, Belgium, just below 13 hours later. That’s half the flight time of an earlier test , during which the craft’s 200-foot wingspan, covered with 12,000 photovoltaic solar cells, kept it aloft for 26 hours. Obviously, a controlled test flight is something — making solar-powered flight commercially viable means proving your plane can successfully navigate busy airspace. To work out Solar Impulse are available in for a smooth landing, peep the video after the break.

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This post is tagged: berne switzerland, bertrand piccard, brussels belgium, foot wingspan, international flight, smooth landing, solar impulse