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]

A symbiotic suit will allow Bertrand Piccard—the pilot and one of the cofounders of the project—to sleep on his seat at any given time, If anything goes wrong or any flight adjustments are needed, the computer will use the suit to wake him up.

With a 262.5-foot wingspan—that's longer than an Airbus A380—the Solar Impulse will travel at an average speed of 43.5mph at a maximum altitude of 39,300 feet. [Computer Weekly]

The solar cells on the wings will suck up power for a maximum seven to eight hours a day because of the angle of the sun. The pilot won't have to worry about clouds, though, because the plane will cruise at 42,000 feet. After sunset, the plane's designers hope batteries will power the plane through the night. They admit that battery technology isn't efficient enough now for this to work, but insist that it will be possible by 2011.

For now, they're planning to test-fly the prototype in 2009, with a smaller wingspan of 197 feet that flies for 36 hours at 27,000 feet. Will they make it? With $87.5 million backing up the project, who knows if they'll actually fly all the way around the world, but they'll probably have enough cash to at least mount an attempt. [Times UK, via Inhabitat]

The Solar Impulse is Bertrand Piccard's 100% solar-powered airplane. He plans to go around the world with it in 2011, but the pilots have started training today using an extremely complex virtual simulator that takes into account all its features. It has a 262-feet wingspan full of photovoltaic cells that power its 40kW engines. The Solar Impulse can move its 4,409-pounds carbon-fiber body at an altitude of 39,370-feet, while maintaining a 43.9mph average speed. Full specs and a picture of the team after the jump.

Solar Impulse Full Specs

AERODYNAMICS
Maximum altitude 12,000m
Outside temperatures + 80°C to -60°C
Maximum weight 2,000 kg
Average speed 70 km/h
Wingspan 80 metres Slightly more than the Airbus A380, in order
to minimise induced drag and to provide a
maximum surface area for the solar cells

PROPULSION
Power of the engines Max. 40 kW The average engine power made available
over a 24h period by the sun is comparable
to that used during the first flight by the
Wright brothers in 1903 (12 CV)

COCKPIT
Environmental control
and life support system
Elimination of CO2 and humidity
generated by the human body
1 single pilot
Man-machine interface device Under development To provide the pilot with more detailed
information about the airplane's flight
characteristics than normally available on
traditional airplanes. This information could
be derived by other senses than sight and
hearing

MATERIALS & STRUCTURE
Essentially constructed from
carbon fiber.
sandwhich structure Using very thin materials with the lowest
possible densities
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
Batteries lithium , weight of 450 kg,
from 200 Wh/kg battery capacities

Solar cells monocrystaline silicon, 130 micron
thickness, about 250 m2 surface,
min 20 % photovoltaic efficiency
Ultra-thin and integrated in the wings

GLOBAL OPTIMISATION
Human parameters Sleep management, MMI
Energy parameters Capturing and channelling of the
energy, battery, engines

Trajectography parameters The met, hours of sunshine Several hundreds, even thousands of
parameters to coordinate in order to
develop a machine evolving in an area of
flight still unexplored today. In order not to
penalize the needs of propulsion, success
can only be achieved through optimizing
output and reducing overall weight.
Safety parameters Reliability
Mechanical parameters materials, mass
Aerodynamic parameters Quality of flight, loads, performance,
aeroelastic phenomena
Thermic parameters Radiation

With those features, the Solar Impulse won't beat the pants out of the Dreamliners, but it sure is one stunning airplane and one amazing challenge for Bertrand Piccard and his Number One co-pilot, André Borschberg. – Jesus Diaz

Press Note [Solar Impulse via BBC News]
Flash animation [Solar Impulse]