Solar Impulse airplane begins fuel-free odyssey across America

Alan Boyle, Science Editor , NBC News ? ? ? 3 hrs.

A Swiss-made, solar-powered airplane called Solar Impulse took off Friday on the first leg of an aerial odyssey across America, beginning what's expected to be the slowest flight from San Francisco to Phoenix with nary a drop of fuel.

Adventurer Bertrand Piccard piloted the craft, which has the wingspan of a jumbo jet but the weight of a typical passenger car, from Moffett Field into the Bay Area's skies at 6:12 a.m. ET (9:12 a.m. ET) and headed south toward Arizona.

"Everything looking fine down here," Mission Control told Piccard after takeoff.

The trip is due to take about 19 hours. You could drive that distance in two-thirds that time ? but that's not the point.

"A flying laboratory for clean technologies, this prototype is the result of seven years of intense work in the fields of materials science, energy management and man-machine interface," Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse's co-founder and CEO, said before the flight.

Borschberg and Piccard will be taking turns in the pilot's seat for a months-long series of flights that should end up in New York around the Fourth of July. Each leg of the odyssey will be covered with streaming video, and the project plans to collect thousands of names that will be added to a "Clean Generation" list of supporters carried in the cockpit.

All of Solar Impulse's power comes from its solar cells, which soak up sunlight and store the electrical energy in batteries for when the sun isn't shining. The plane generates as much power as a motor scooter for its four 10-horsepower motors. That's why the carbon-fiber craft has to be so big and light.

The "Across America" mission builds upon Piccard's experience as a record-setting, round-the-world balloonist, and draws upon financial backing from Swiss business concerns. In 2010, Solar Impulse took on on the world's first solar-powered night flight, a 26-hour affair in Switzerland. The next year, it made the first international solar flight, from Switzerland to Belgium to France. And in 2012, it took on the first solar-powered intercontinental flight, from Europe to North Africa.

Over the next couple of months, Solar Impulse is due to fly from Phoenix to Dallas-Fort Worth, then to St. Louis, then Washington, then New York. As ambitious as this odyssey is, it's just a warm-up for the venture's ultimate goal: circumnavigating the world with solar power.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2b79a780/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Cfutureoftech0Csolar0Eimpulse0Eairplane0Ebegins0Efuel0Efree0Eodyssey0Eacross0Eamerica0E6C9761186/story01.htm

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