A Swiss pilot flew a solar plane across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain into Moroccan airspace Tuesday on the world's first intercontinental flight in a plane powered by the sun. Bertrand Piccard, a 54-year-old psychiatrist and balloonist, took off before dawn from Madrid in the Solar Impulse, an aircraft as big as an Airbus A340 but as light as an average family car.
After a graceful takeoff at 5:22 am (0322 GMT), Piccard guided the experimental plane southward from Madrid-Barajas airport. "For one hour I had the full moon on my right and I had the sunrise on my left and that was absolutely gorgeous," Piccard told AFP in an interview from the cockpit shortly after setting out. After more than 10 hours' flight, Piccard had climbed to more than 5,500 metres (18,000 feet). Flying at some 45 kilometres (28 miles) per hour in the freezing, high altitude, he needed an oxygen mask to breathe.
An onboard video camera relayed images of the distant patchwork of fields and valleys stretched out below the aircraft, which has 12,000 solar cells in the wings turning four electrical motors. To qualify as an intercontinental flight, Piccard had only to cross the Strait of Gibraltar - 14 kilometres (nine miles) at its narrowest point - from Europe to Africa.
The crossing is one of the most challenging points of the voyage because of the need of oxygen and temperatures that can dip as low as minus 29 degrees Celsius (minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit). He entered Moroccan airspace without any hitches, Mustapha Bakkoury, the head of the North African country's solar energy agency, told AFP on the telephone.
The aircraft is not using a drop of fuel. The voyage, 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) overall, is also intended as a rehearsal for Solar Impulse's round-the-world flight planned for 2014.