The Solar Impulse team has been working on the project since 2003, with the carbon-fiber plane wingspan measuring 262-feet and weighing 4,409 pounds. Over at Dübendorf Airfield in Switzerland yesterday, pilot Markus Scherdel successfully flew it for the first time, flying 350 meters in 28 seconds, with an altitude of just a meter. Powering the four electric motors are 12,000 photovoltaic solar cells, though yesterday they were aided with on-board batteries.

Despite being worked on for close to seven years, it's still early days yet for the Impulse Solar, with the next big step in the quest to circumnavigate the world being a 36-hour flight in summer 2010. Make it so, Captain Piccard. [Wired]

Jon also gives a little look into some of the other insane projects the military has finally decided to stop funding, and unfortunately, they all look awesome. Check out Wyatt Cenac's segment on military gadgets below. [Comedy Central]

In a report from Xinhua, the government-sponsored news agency, a group of journalists and officials were on a Southern Airlines flight in late February when one of them noticed an unusual luminous object traveling alongside their vessel.

After excitedly pointing it out to everyone around him, one journalist managed to snap a few photos before the object suddenly changed directions and swerved north east. The witnesses debated whether it had been a plane – but later, another plane did appear and everyone agreed that it looked nothing like the unidentified object they'd just seen.

Altogether, the alleged UFO sighting lasted about a minute. Any idea what it could have been? Aliens? Solar flares? AMERICAN SPIES?! [Xinhua]

Both Air Canada and Alaska are safe havens for unfettered access, at least for now. (VoIP is blocked though.)They're both holding off to see how things go without a content filter, and hope you read their terms of use. Virgin America is the best though, since they seem to be more philosophically opposed to a content filter than the others—their spokesperson said that they don't block content on their entertainment systems, so they plan to keep that in place for Wi-Fi.

Of course, no one can filter what you bring on the plane in your hard drive. And most airports have plenty of nudie magazines for sale all around the terminal. You know, if you're really that determined to look at boobs on a plane, but you could at least watch an arty movie with boobs to be somewhat less gauche. [MSBNC]

Of course, these are no ordinary paper planes. Each of the 14 x 9-inch 1-ounce space shuttles are made with a special paper, treated with chemical products to allow it to resist such temperatures. The shuttles were tested in a hypersonic wind tunnel at the beginning of the year and, if everything goes well, they will make the trip to Kibo, the Japanese ISS module, on board the Space Shuttle Discovery in February.

Once they reach their destination, astronaut Dr. Koichi Wakata will then throw them in their voyage either by hand or using Dextre, the gigantic robotic arm on the ISS.

If they are lucky, they will reach populated areas, where they can be picked and returned to Japan's space agency. Hopefully for money, because if I got one of these from the ISS, I would keep it or sell it on eBay. [Asahi via Pink Tentacle]

A very expensive one: The 330-knots single-engine jet won't come cheap at $1.35 million, so it's not the skycar we were all hoping for.

[Red Ferret]

The ICON A5 has been flown successfully, but a funny side note—the company announced the plane before testing it in the air. Good thing it works!

As with most lofty goals, there are major obstacles to contend with. First and foremost, the designers are going to have to figure out how to power such an aircraft over the course of these long missions. Oh, and it will have to do it while carrying a 1000 pound payload in the fearsome winds at a 60,000—90,000 feet. No problem right? As for the design, the Vulture will most likely draw on NASA designs like the one pictured above, but there is no definitive time table on when we might actually see a working craft. [Flight Global via CNET via DVICE]

If that statistic does not get your fabricated love's dopamine receptors to hypersensitive status on receipt of the gift, you are with the wrong fictional person (sorry). So what? That is one less person to get in your way when making/unleashing your paper planes at 50km/h using your $14.95 launcher kit. You can do better, buddy; a nonexistent girlfriend that refused to make out with you and continually nagged you about playing too much Xbox 360 isn't worth your effort, anyway. Keep looking, and go easy on the hallucinogens. [Product Page via Nerd Approved]

The flight was pretty secretive because QinetiQ are a defense contractor, and therefore there weren't any representatives from the world air sports federation there. This means that it can't be verified and entered into the record books. A Qinetiq employee seemed sure that it could go even better though, saying; "You ain't seen nothing yet." That enthusiasm is great, but just remember to invite the FAI guys next time, OK?

The Zephyr has a huge 59-ft wingspan, but weighs only 31kg, making it extremely efficient. During the flight it reached a maximum altitude of 58,000 ft, charging it's batteries during the day so that it could fly through the night. [BBC]

It may not be very green to have a personal jet, and this is probably the least green ever conceived, right up there with Google's party plane and Travolta's Boeing. [Defense Tech]

The event was part of the Centennial Challenges, the government-sponsored competitions that aim to have us all flying to the office in the morning and taking holidays on the moon as soon as possible. The money was given out in six categories: speed, short takeoff, efficiency, handling, noise and overall best.

The grand prize of $100,000, plus two $25,000 prizes, went to a slightly-modified Pipistrel Virus, like the one shown below. It costs $70,000 new, so the team was basically awarded a free plane and $80,000 of gas money.

Another standard looking plane, a modified Vans RV-4 as shown below, won $25,000 and $50,000 for speed and noise sections.

One team were flying a Cessna 172, which has been in production since the 1940's, and even they won a prize. Next year I'm going to turn up with a remote controlled plane - it would probably win me enough to take a decent vacation. [CNet]

[Via Techeblog]

Airplanes to become even more uncomfortably close [Gearfuse]

The motor and 5:1 gearbox are Swiss made, and the rudder actuator is sensitive to 64-steps, allowing 180-degree turns within a 12-foot-wide room. And the battery pack is a dot-sized 30Mah Lithium ion that docks on the 2-channel remote. The prop? Carbon fiber, of course.

How does it fly? I won't lie, I'm going to use the included simulator software before I try piloting this $300 plane in my house. But after the gallery, there's a video. More on my maiden flight, later, after flight school.

Video after the jump...as soon as youtube gets its shit together.

A little history: The Carbon is the successor to the original Butterfly, made from Balsa wood. I won't mince words: That thing was the most fragile gadget I'd ever seen. Within minutes, the slight frame was smashed in three places. –Brian Lam

Carbon Butterfly [Gizmodo]