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Mon, Dec 01, 2003

Piccard To Build Solar Powered Aircraft

Another Record In The Making?

And now for something completely different...

Switzerland's Bertrand Piccard has another trick up his sleeve. Like his first, it involves flight. And that's where the similarity ends.

You might remember Piccard, along with Britain's Brian Jones, was the first to circle the world non-stop in a balloon. That was in 1999. Now, Piccard's sights are set on developing an aircraft powered by the sun and flying it around the world.

"A century after the Wright brothers' first flight, we look forward to adding new pages to solar aviation," said the 54-year old Piccard. "It is a colossal challenge."

But he won't have to go it alone. He'll have help in the development stage from the Lausanne Federal Institute of Technology. The challenge will be to generate enough power to both propell the aircraft and store energy for night flight.

The first trials are expected in about four years. The 'round-the-world flight is expected to last 36 hours.

FMI: www.epfl.ch/Eindex.html, www.solar-impulse.com

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