Historic flight of the aircraft Solar Impulse Solar

The Solar Impulse experimental aircraft landed without incident Thursday morning after performing for the first time ever flying over 24 hours in a plane without fuel, powered only by solar energy.
This feat of engineering and human opens the door to a world tour planned for 2013.
The aircraft, piloted by Andre Borschberg touched down at the military base of Payerne, in western Switzerland, 9:01 (7:01 GMT) after 26 hours to turn in the skies of Switzerland, over the Jura .

Greeted by cheers of a hundred spectators, under an azure sky, the HB-SIA prototype taxied along the runway and stopped after a hundred meters away.
The device could even continue the flight, "he captures enough energy to go up in altitude and another night", said Bertrand Piccard, the project developer that allowed the driver by helping to open the cockpit.

"It is a pleasure to be back!" Exclaimed Andre Borschberg. "It seems to be still in the air, being away for so long," he told AFP.
"If the aircraft is sustainable, it must be the driver too," joked the former fighter pilot who is 57 years.

The prototype, whose wings are covered with 12,000 photovoltaic cells powering four electric motors of an output of 10 horsepower each, took off Wednesday morning and continued without interruption the night flight.
Lithium-polymer 400 kg installed on the aircraft and have been recharged by solar panels throughout the day Wednesday, provided the energy to keep the aircraft in the air during the night flight .
"The goal is to fly without fuel. The aim is to show that we can be much less dependent on fossil energy than what we usually think, "said Bertrand Piccard.

During the day Wednesday, the intensity of the sun during the day was such that the pilot turned off the part of the device that recharges the batteries.
However late in the day, the plane was flying too fast, pushed by strong winds in altitude, preventing it from fully recharge its batteries.
On the evening of Wednesday, but organizers decided to continue the flight at night, considering that the aircraft batteries were responsible enough to take until early morning.

The flight, which comes three months after a first flight of half past one, is a crucial step for the project led by the explorer Bertrand Piccard. For the flight director, Claude Nicollier, "it's a beautiful flight, better than expected."
It is followed by the International Aeronautical Federation (IAF) which stores records in aviation.

A first attempt at takeoff was canceled last Thursday one hour before the scheduled departure due to a failure of an electronic component that has since been replaced.
Solar Impulse had succeeded on April 7 in Switzerland its first flight about half past one, the first step in a series of tests. The team of about 70 people perform other account to calibrate the machine and eventually build a second copy, which will tour the world in five steps to 2013 or 2014 rather than 2012 as previously announced.