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Wishing success for this historic flight!
"A plane powered only by the Sun has set off from San Francisco on the first leg of a bid to cross the US with no fuel.
The Solar Impulse craft will stop in Phoenix, Dallas, St Louis, Washington DC and New York in the coming weeks.
The team's plane has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340 but weighs only as much as an average car.
It has already made a day-and-night flight lasting more than 26 hours, and the team aims to eventually circumnavigate the globe in 2015.
The plane took off from Moffett Field on the edge of San Francisco Bay at 06:12 local time (13:12 GMT). It should take about 19 hours to complete the first leg of the American crossing to Phoenix.
The craft's wings and stabiliser are covered with nearly 12,000 solar cells, which in daylight hours charge an array of lithium-ion batteries in gondolas that hang below the wing.
Together, these provide power to the plane's four electric motors and allow flight in daylight and night conditions."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-en...ment-22369680#
"A plane powered only by the Sun has set off from San Francisco on the first leg of a bid to cross the US with no fuel.
The Solar Impulse craft will stop in Phoenix, Dallas, St Louis, Washington DC and New York in the coming weeks.
The team's plane has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340 but weighs only as much as an average car.
It has already made a day-and-night flight lasting more than 26 hours, and the team aims to eventually circumnavigate the globe in 2015.
The plane took off from Moffett Field on the edge of San Francisco Bay at 06:12 local time (13:12 GMT). It should take about 19 hours to complete the first leg of the American crossing to Phoenix.
The craft's wings and stabiliser are covered with nearly 12,000 solar cells, which in daylight hours charge an array of lithium-ion batteries in gondolas that hang below the wing.
Together, these provide power to the plane's four electric motors and allow flight in daylight and night conditions."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-en...ment-22369680#