The path breaking solar-powered plane is making final preparations for a flight across the United States.

Click NEXT to read more...

After several hours of non-stop flights at different locations, Solar Impulse will fly across the United States, starting from the West Coast.

Click NEXT to read more...

The flight will take off from San Francisco in early May and land at New York's John F. Kennedy airport.

Click NEXT to read more...

By 2015, Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard and project co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg plan to undertake the first round-the-world flight without any fuel.

Click NEXT to read more...

Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss aeronaut and psychiatrist was the co-pilot of a non-stop balloon trip around the world.

Click NEXT to read more...

The Solar Impulse, made of carbon fiber sheets and powered by solar cells, will attempt to fly once around the world powered solely by solar energy.

Click NEXT to read more...

Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range solar powered aircraft project being undertaken at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.

Click NEXT to read more...

Piccard initiated the Solar Impulse project in 2003 with a 10-year budget of $112 million.

Click NEXT to read more...

By 2009, he had a multi-disciplinary team of 50 specialists from six countries, assisted by about 100 outside advisers. The project is financed by a number of private companies.

Click NEXT to read more...

The first aircraft, bearing the Swiss aircraft registration code of HB-SIA, is a single-seater monoplane, capable of taking off under its own power, and intended to remain airborne up to 36 hours.

Click NEXT to read more...

In 2012, Piccard and Borschberg conducted successful solar flight from Switzerland to Spain and Morocco in 26 hours.

Click NEXT to read more...

Building on the experience of this prototype, a slightly larger follow-on design (HB-SIB) is planned to make a circumnavigation of the globe in 20-25 days.