MADRID - A Swiss adventurer soared above sun-splashed Spanishvalleys toward Morocco on Tuesday on the world's firstintercontinental flight in a solar-powered plane. Bertrand Piccard, a 54-year-old psychiatrist and balloonist, tookoff into the night skies above Madrid in the Solar Impulse plane, agiant as big as an Airbus A340 but as light as an average familycar. After a graceful, nearly silent takeoff at 5:22 am (0322 GMT), heguided the experimental plane southward from Madrid-Barajas airportand within five hours was halfway between the Spanish capital andthe southern coast. An onboard camera relayed pictures of the valleys stretched outbelow the aircraft, which has 12,000 solar cells in the wingsturning four electrical motors. "For one hour I had the full moon on my right and I had the sunriseon my left and that was absolutely gorgeous. I had all the coloursof the rainbow in the sky and also on the ground," Piccard told AFPin an interview from the cockpit shortly after setting out. "The question is not to use solar power for normal airplanes," headded. "The question is more to demonstrate that we can achieve incrediblegoals, almost impossible goals with new technologies, without fuel,just with solar energy, and raise awareness that if we can do it inthe air of course everybody can do it on the ground." Piccard gradually piloted the plane toward 3,600 metres (11,800feet) as he headed to Seville in southern Spain at about 40kilometres (25 miles) per hour. He was then to cross the Strait of Gibraltar at 8,500 metres(28,000 feet), enter Moroccan airspace over Tangiers and land atRabat-Sale airport sometime after 11:00 pm (2200 GMT). All that, without using a drop of fuel. Each of the motors on the carbon-fibre plane charges 400-kilogramme(880-pound) lithium polymer batteries during the day, allowing theaircraft to carry on flying after dark. "I think the challenge is really the first intercontinental flighton solar power," Piccard said. "We will leave Europe to enter into Africa crossing the Strait ofGibraltar and also bringing a message of inspiration for theMoroccan Agency for Solar Energy, which is preparing a huge andvery ambitious solar energy programme for Morocco." Organisers say the voyage has been timed to coincide with thelaunch of construction on the largest-ever solar thermal plant inMorocco's southern Ouarzazate region. Piccard, who made the world's first non-stop round-the-worldballoon flight in 1999 together with Briton Brian Jones, took overthe plane's controls from project co-founder Andre Borschberg, a59-year-old Swiss executive and pilot who flew a first leg fromPayerne in Switzerland, landing in Madrid on May 25. The voyage, 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) overall, is alsointended as a rehearsal for Solar Impulse's round-the-world flightplanned for 2014. The aircraft made history in July 2010 as the first manned plane tofly around the clock on the sun's energy. It holds the record for the longest flight by a mannedsolar-powered aeroplane after staying aloft for 26 hours, 10minutes and 19 seconds above Switzerland, also setting a record foraltitude by flying at 9,235 metres (30,298 feet). The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Fiber Optic Adaptor , China Fiber Optic Patch Cord, and more. For more , please visit Fiber Optic Patch Cord today!
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