Solar Impulse shining in Iberian skies

The Solar Impulse aircraft entered Spanish airspace at 10:10 AM this morning, flying over the Pyrenees of Navarra, a route further east of the one initially planned for the Swiss prototype of a solar-powered plane with Morocco as its destination. Under Swiss pilot André Borschberg, the plane will be stopping in Madrid's Barajos airport, from which it will take off for Rabat after the pilot Bertrand Piccard takes the place of Borschberg. Solar Impulse, which runs exclusively on solar energy from the thousands of voltaic cells on its wings, reached maximum altitude (above 8,100 metres) to fly over the Pyrenees at a speed of 80 km per hour, according to the EFE news agency, which contacted Borschberg via radio. ''Many think that using renewable energy is neither possible nor realistic,'' noted the pilot, ''but this flight shows that it is.'' Borschberg also said that the Solar Impulse project calls for an around-the-world flight soon without a single drop of fuel and with zero carbon dioxide emissions resulting, its energy exclusively from the solar power accumulated in the voltaic cells covering the wings of the plane.(ANSAmed).