Solar-powered plane gears up for first crossing of US

The first crossing of the United States by a solar-powered plane is expected to start in just over a month, its creators said, as they make final preparations for an attempt two years from now at the first round-the-world flight without any fuel.

Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard and project co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg, whose Solar Impulse made its first intercontinental flight from Spain to Morocco last June, aim for their plane to take off from near San Francisco in early May and land at New York’s John F Kennedy airport about two months later.

With the wingspan of a jumbo jet and weighing the same as a small car, the Solar Impulse is just a test model for the team as they build a new aircraft they hope will circumnavigate the globe in 2015.