Solar plane on historic intercontinental flight | WPN World People News

A solar plane with a Swiss pilot at the controls flew across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain into Moroccan airspace Tuesday on the world's first intercontinental flight using not a drop of oil.

On the second leg of his historic flight Bertrand Piccard, a 54-year-old psychiatrist and balloonist, took off on his 2,500 km trip before dawn from Madrid in the Solar Impulse, the size of an A340 Airbus.

"For one hour I had the full moon on my right and I had the sunrise on my left and that was absolutely gorgeous," Piccard told AFP in an interview shortly after setting out.

Flying at an altitude of over 5,500 metres (18,000 feet) in freezing temperature, Piccard needed an oxygen mask to breathe.

A regular tweeter, Piccard has been sharing his incredible experiences while the Solar Impulse website is helping followers keep track of the flight.

The carbon-fibre plane passed the Moroccan border at 1445 GMT.

Powered by 12,000 solar cells in the wings, Piccard had only to cross the Strait of Gibraltar 14 kilometres (nine miles) at its narrowest point from Europe to Africa to qualify as an intercontinental flight.

Each of the motors on the light weight carbon-fibre craft charges 400-kilogramme (880-pound) lithium polymer batteries during the day, allowing the aircraft to carry on flying even after dark.

Piccard, who made the world's first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight in 1999 together with Briton Brian Jones, took over the plane's controls from project co-founder Andre Borschberg.

The idea behind the flight is to "demonstrate that we can achieve incredible goals, almost impossible goals, with new technologies, without fuel, just with solar energy, and raise awareness that if we can do it in the air, of course everybody can do it on the ground," said Piccard.

Organisers say the voyage has been timed to coincide with the launch of construction of the largest-ever solar thermal plant in Morocco's southern Ouarzazate region.

Borschberg, a 59-year-old Swiss executive and pilot, flew a first leg from Payerne in Switzerland, landing in Madrid on May 25.

The present journey is being seen as a rehearsal for Solar Impulse's round-the-world flight planned for 2014.

The aircraft made history in July 2010 on completion of 26-hours non-stop flight.

Source: Britain News.Net