Ten years after Mr Piccard and Briton Brian Jones achieved the first non-stop flight around the globe in the Orbiter balloon, the Solar Impulse team are aiming to demonstrate that reliance on renewable energy is not a pipedream. "If an aircraft is able to fly day and night without fuel, propelled solely by solar energy, let no one come and claim that it is impossible to do the same thing for motor vehicles, heating and air conditioning systems and computers" Mr Piccard said. Although computer simulations have been tried out, the prototype HB-SIA will make its maiden test flight by the end of this year. Full Article at PerthNow