“Solar Impulse is a European long-range solar powered plane project being undertaken by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. The project eventually hopes to succeed in the first circling of the earth with a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power. The first aircraft, bearing the Swiss aircraft registration code of HB-SIA, is a single-seater, capable of taking off under its own power, and intended to remain airborne up to 36 hours. This aircraft first flew an entire diurnal solar cycle, including nearly 9 hours of night flying, in a 26-hour flight on 7–8 July 2010”. – Wikipedia


Photo: Workers prepare the Solar Impulse airplane HB-SIA for a first runway test on November 19, 2009 in Dubendorf, Switzerland. Solar Impulse chairman Bertrand Piccard, psychatrist and aeronaut, who made the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight, and CEO and former fighter pilot Andrй Borschberg plan a round-the-world flight, driven only by solar energy, for 2012. (Photo by Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

A cyclist climbs over a tree fallen atop a car after a heavy storm in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, July 25, 2015. One person was killed as the most severe July storm ever recorded in the Netherlands swept across the country on Saturday, delaying flights and disrupting road and rail traffic. Dozens of flights were delayed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and authorities warned travellers not to take to the road as gale-force winds and rain lashed the country, prompting the meteorological service to issue a “Code Red” warning. (Photo by Cris Toala Olivares/Reuters)

Russia-backed separatists stand at the site of the crashed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 plane, near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, July 16, 2015. The fighters said they have arrived to protect the media and make sure the MH17 crash site is clear of ammunition and mines. A year since a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was blown out of the sky over war-ravaged eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people, there has been little official word of progress in determining what brought down Flight MH17. (Photo by Antoine E. R. Delaunay/AP Photo)

“NASA's Pathfinder, Pathfinder Plus, Centurion and Helios Prototype were an evolutionary series of solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program. They were built to develop the technologies that would allow long-term, high-altitude aircraft to serve as “atmospheric satellites”, to perform atmospheric research tasks as well as serve as communications platforms”. – Wikipedia

Photo: The solar-electric Helios Prototype flying wing is flies over the Hawaiian islands of Niihau and Lehua during the first solar-powered test flight July 14, 2001 from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, HI. The 18-hour flight was a functional checkout of the aircraft's systems and performance in preparation for an attempt to reach sustained flight at 100,000 feet altitude later in the summer. (Photo Courtesy of NASA/Getty Images)

A trapped car is pushed along a flooded street after typhoon Soudelor hit Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, August 9, 2015. The typhoon battered China's east coast on Sunday, killing eight people and forcing authorities to cancel hundreds of flights and evacuate more than 163,000 people. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

In advance of Fleet Week performances, the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and Team Oracle aerobatics pilot Sean D. Tucker fly over the San Francisco Bay during a photo flight on Thursday, October 5, 2017. (Photo by Noah Berger/AP Photo)

A hot air balloon in the shape of children's comic Rupert Bear is seen tethered before a tethered flight at the Bristol International Balloon fiesta in south west England, Britain, August 10, 2018. (Photo by Adrian Sherratt/The Guardian)

A foreign passenger wearing a protective suit poses as they prepare for their flight at Manila's International Airport, Philippines, Monday, January 18, 2021. Coronavirus infections in the Philippines have surged past 500,000 in a new bleak milestone with the government facing criticisms for failing to immediately launch a vaccination program amid a global scramble for COVID-19 vaccines. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)