Airborne adventure: the solar plane is scheduled to fly around the world on solar power in 2013.
Floating in the night skies with solar power: extreme balloonist Bertrand Piccard has ambitious plans. He intends to fly a plane nonstop around the world powered solely by energy from the sun. He has therefore initiated a project called "Solar Impulse" and already built a test plane. 12,000 solar cells in the wings provide the power for the solar plane, which has the same wingspan as an Airbus.
Nanotechnology lends wings
Piccard’s engineers are already working on a new model: the next-generation solar-powered plane will weigh less than 1,600 kg and thus be lighter than an Audi A6. Scientists at Bayer MaterialScience are therefore designing special material mixtures: carbon nanotubes will lend stability to the plane’s featherlight frame and help make the batteries more energy-efficient. Read on here to find out more about the other innovations these materials experts are developing for the high-tech plane.