Solar impulse is coming. With 12,000 solar cells on its 208-foot wing and horizontal tail, and powered only by the sun, the prototype, here during a 2011 test in Switzerland, became in 2010 the first solar airplane to make it through the night. The record-setting flight lasted more than 26 hours. Led by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, who co-piloted the first balloon to circle the world non-stop, the Solar Impulse team will ship prototype HB-SIA to San Francisco this month for a flight across the United States in early summer. In 2015, the team will attempt a flight around the world.
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