Solar Impulse plane takes to the skies for the first leg of its round the world journey

Whilst the world gets increasingly excited about electric cars, another revolution is (literally) quietly taking place in the United Arab Emirates. Solar Impulse has taken off from Abu Dhabi and the pilots hope to circumnavigate the globe powered by solar energy alone, with 17000 solar cells charging four lithium batteries. That’s a lot of cells and may explain the size of the wingspan, which is longer than a 747.

This is truly groundbreaking stuff and we wish these pilots well.

You can read The Times’ account here. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/environment/article4376834.ece