Solar Impulse: Solar Plane lands in US Midwest after 21 hour flight

The Solar Impulse is pictured after landing at Brussels Airport, in Zaventem, May 13, 2011. 

The single-person solar-powered aircraft piloted by a Swiss adventurer, has landed in St. Louis, Missouri on the third leg of a transcontinental flight after over 21 hours in the air.

The organizer's ground crew rushed out on the tarmac of the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport when the aircraft, which has four electric engines and a 63 meter wingspan, landed at 0627 GMT.

"I feel (like) I was coming back from another world," said pilot Bertrand Piccard upon landing. "It's almost a shock" to return to normal life.

Despite the long hours "I didn't really feel the fatigue. I felt very fortunate to be up there."

The landing was broadcast live on the organizer's website, live.solarimpulse.com.

Piccard departed the Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas aboard the Solar Impulse at 0906 GMT Monday on the third of a five-stop journey across the United States aimed at showcasing the potential of renewable energy technologies.

St. Louis was chosen as the Midwest stopover to pay homage to aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh and his "Spirit of St. Louis," the first plane to fly from New York to Paris non-stop.

The Texas-Missouri leg was Piccard's longest flight in the single-seat cockpit to date.

Powerful storms that hit the St. Louis, Missouri area late Friday rendered Solar Impulse's airport hangar unusable, so organizers deployed what they described as a "revolutionary" inflatable mobile hangar.

Solar Impulse over the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

The Solar Impulse piloted by Bertrand Piccard glides over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco 

Picture: AP Photo/Solar Impulse

Solar Impulse: Solar-powered plane makes airborne hop

The prototype of Solar Impulse, a pioneering Swiss bid to fly around the world on solar power, briefly took off for the first time on Thursday but under battery power, the organisers said.

The high tech single-seater with the wingspan of an Airbus A340 airliner (63.40 metres) made a controlled 400 metre (yard) flight about one metre above the runway at Duebendorf air base near the Swiss city of Zurich, said co-founders Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg.

"A plane like that never flown before and it's extraordinary... because it's an area of flight that has been unexplored until now," Borschberg, chief executive of Solar Impulse, told AFP.

"It was very important to see if it would rise and what way we could keep it stable," he added.

Despite its wingspan, the aircraft only weighs 1,600 kilogrammes, about as much as a medium-sized car.

Although the prototype is fitted up for solar-powered flight, the four electric motors were powered by batteries for the occasion.

The prototype, which is slightly smaller than the craft that is expected to fly around the world, is primarily aimed at testing the cutting edge technology used to build and control the aircraft, and to fly through the night.

A first non-stop 36 hour flight through darkness is planned in Switzerland from spring 2010, with the prospect of a five stage flight around the world in 2012.

Solar Impulse prepared for first flight at Duebendorf, Zurich

An aircraft dubbed Solar Impulse is prepared for its first flight at Duebendorf airport near Zurich, to test the feasibility of a flight over two days and one night under solar energy power only, paving the way for a round the world flight in 2012
Picture: AFP/GETTY