Swiss Pilot Flies His Solar Plane to Over 31,000 Feet, Breaking a 15-Year Record

A Swiss pilot recently broke a long-standing altitude record, bringing his solar-powered electric aircraft to 9,521 meters, or more than 31,236 feet. The SolarStratos team has now set its sights on hitting 10,000 meters, nearing the typical cruise altitude for airliners.

Raphaël Domjan took his SolarStratos aircraft to 9,521 meters from Sion Airport in Switzerland on August 12, 2025. That beats the previous altitude record of 9,232 meters set back in 2010.

The flight lasted five hours and nine minutes and made use of warm air thermals to save battery power on the way up. The data is now being reviewed by the World Air Sports Federation. The SolarStratos team says their next target is an even 10,000 meters… which just happens to meet the cruising altitude of your average commercial jet. Domjan even crossed paths with an airliner mid-flight, which his team insists was symbolic rather than concerning.

SolarStratos itself is a single-prop, carbon-fiber aircraft designed to be as light as possible. It stretches 9.6 meters long with a massive 24.8-meter wingspan to fit its 22 square meters of solar panels. The plane cruises around 80 kilometers per hour and can top out at about 140, which means your morning commute is still faster, but unlike your car, this one runs entirely on sunshine.

The rules for a valid record mean the batteries had to be charged solely by solar energy, the plane had to land under its own power, and it had to finish with at least 16% charge left — no dead battery glide-ins allowed.

Domjan is no stranger to renewable stunts, having circumnavigated the globe in a solar-powered boat in 2012. Now, at 53, he says his goal is to prove aviation can exist without fossil fuels. The SolarStratos team even hints at a future manned solar-powered flight into the stratosphere, which begins around 12,000 meters in Switzerland.

FMI: www.solarstratos.com/en/