Solar-Powered Plane Makes 7-10 Day Stop in Dallas

Plane arrived in DFW at about midnight

A solar-powered plane that has wowed aviation fans in Europe arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at about midnight Thursday.

The plane, Solar Impulse, is traveling across the United States with stops in Phoenix; Dallas; Washington, D.C.; and New York.

The plane will stay in DFW for about a week.

The striking plane has number of LEDs on the leading edge of the 208-foot wings, which led to a number of calls about UFOs as the plane landed in Phoenix earlier this month.

Solar Impulse, considered the world's most advanced solar-powered plane, will stop for seven to 10 days at major airports in each city so the pilots can display and discuss the aircraft with reporters, students, engineers and aviation fans.

"There is no other airplane in the world that can fly day and night without fuel," said Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse co-founder and chairman. "It's [a] most extraordinary plane flying today."

The plane plans to reach New York's Kennedy Airport in early July -- without using a drop of fuel, its creators said.

Between Dallas and Washington, D.C., the plane will also stop at one of three other cities: Atlanta, Nashville or St. Louis, said André Borschberg, Solar Impulse's co-founder, pilot and CEO. Each leg of the flight will run 20 to 25 hours.

"We want to inspire the young generation to become pioneers, to help them find and develop their passion," Borschberg said.

The Solar Impulse is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover massive wings and charge its batteries, allowing it to fly day and night without jet fuel. It has the wing span of a commercial airplane but the weight of the average family car, making it vulnerable to bad weather.

The great adventure of the 21st century -- it's not to go back on the moon," Piccard said. "It's to implement this clean technology, save our natural resources while at the same time to create jobs and have a better life on this planet."

Its creators say the Solar Impulse is designed to showcase the potential of solar power and will never replace fuel-powered commercial flights. The delicate, single-seat plane cruises around 40 miles per hour and can't fly through clouds.

"The more you fly the more energy you have stored in the batteries, so it's absolutely fabulous to imagine all the possibilities the people can have with these technologies in their daily lives," Piccard said.

In 2010, the solar plane flew nonstop for 26 hours to demonstrate that the aircraft could soak up enough sunlight to keep it airborne through the night. A year later, it went on its first international flight to Belgium and France.

Last year, the Solar Impulse made its first transcontinental voyage, traveling 1,550 miles from Madrid to the Moroccan capital Rabat in 20 hours.

Before its coast-to-coast American trip, the Solar Impulse will take test flights around the San Francisco Bay Area in April, officials said.

Piccard and Borschberg are planning an around-the-world flight in an improved version of the plane in 2015.

Piccard comes from a line of adventurers. His late father, Jacques, was an oceanographer and engineer who plunged deeper into the ocean than any other person. His grandfather Auguste, also an engineer, was the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere.

Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones made history in 1999 when they became the first people to circle the globe in a hot air balloon, flying 25,000 miles nonstop for 20 days.

The name Piccard has other resonance to fans of fictional exploration; the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation named Capt. Jean-Luc Picard after Auguste Piccard, Bertrand's grandfather.

NBC 5's Frank Heinz and Andres Gutierrez contributed to this report.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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