Solar Impulse: Solar Plane Attemts Intercontinental Flight

Solar Impulse: Clean Plane in Europe Test Flight: Live Video

Solar Impulse, the Swiss-built solar-powered plane, is attempting a flight from Switzerland to Morocco. Solar Impulse, whose 200-foot wingspan is home to its solar-panel power source, took around 20 hours to fly from Payerne to Madrid, where it must stop for repairs and a change of pilot.

Aside from tweeting like mad, the Solar Impulse team is also providing live video, which you can see below.

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Solar powered plane flies over Mediterranean

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Solar Impulse project is using the intercontinental flight as a technical rehearsal for a round-the-world trip, which is tentatively scheduled for 2014 (the Solar Impulse team hoped to do the trans-global in 2011).

At the moment, the solar-powered aircraft is really big and really slow: ground speed is 89km/h(55mph).

However, if this test flight proves successful, we could see a new future in commercial aviation, which is at the moment stuck somewhere in the nineties: we don't even have hybrid engines for taxiing yet.

Follow the Solar Impulse on its journey with your own virtual cockpit. The plane itself is pretty cool to look at: somewhere between the Spruce Goose and SpaceShip One.

• Solar Impulse Team on Twitter
• Pilot André Borschberg on Twitter

Live Video from Solar Impulse