We've been tracking the sun-powered plane known as Solar Impulse for years as it roved hither and yon.
And last year, defence firm Qinetiq flew a solar-powered plane for 54 hours, smashing the official world record for the longest-duration unmanned flight.
The single-person aircraft came from Switzerland and has made history as a solar-powered plane that could fly overnight, thanks to batteries that are charged up during the day.
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Considered the world's most advanced sun-powered plane, the Solar Impulse took off from Moffett Field in Mountain View at first light for a two-hour practice run in advance of a planned multi-city, cross-country tour.
Early this morning at Moffet Air Field in Mountain View, California, Solar Impulse finally took off on the first leg of its barnstorming tour across the US. Of course, this isn't the first time the sun-powered plane and its pilots, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, have flown long distance, but it is the first time it's taken wing through American airspace.
He then produced with DuPont the first plane powered entirely by the sun, the Solar Challenger, which in 1981 flew the 163 miles from Paris to Canterbury at a height of 11, 000 feet.
The plane is powered by about 12, 000 photovoltaic cells that cover massive wings and charge its batteries.
The plane's manufacturer, Airbus Industrie, said the plane was powered by two CFM56-5 engines, built by the US company General Electric and the French concern Snecma.
As part of a graduate project a year earlier, the two built the world's first human-powered ornithopter a plane that flaps its wings and flew it nearly 500 feet.
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Opened in 1928, the plane simply rotates in a circle powered only by its noisy propeller.
Powered by six 747 jet engines, the plane will require a 12, 000ft runway for takeoffs and landings.
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