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The Solar Impulse, an airplane with the wingspan of a jumbo jet but weighing almost 1000 lbs less than a Honda Civic, flew for 87 minutes on Wednesday.
The Swiss aircraft is a prototype for a plane that plans to take a fuel-less flight around the world in 2012, but it had never been more than a meter off the ground before today. After the flight, the pilot was happy. "Everything went as it should," he said.
Powered by four electric motors, the Solar Impulse has 12,000 solar cells built into its wings and high performance batteries that store enough electricity during the day to let it fly comfortably through the night.
