An experimental solar powered aircraft landed on Thursday at 9.01 am (0701 GMT) in western Switzerland, after completing a historic flight lasting some 26 hours.

AFP reporters watched the experimental Solar Impulse aircraft with pilot Andre Borschberg onboard make a seamless landing at Payerne airbase in western Switzerland about three hours after daybreak.

“It’s the first time ever that a solar airplane has flown through the night,” said team chief Bertrand Piccard earlier.

“That was the moment that proved the mission was successful, we made it,” he told journalists.

The high-tech single-seater aircraft had taken off from Payerne in the early hours (0451 GMT) of Wednesday, in the first ever attempt of such a manned flight on purely solar energy, defying the hours of darkness to keep aloft for a day and a night. [Read more...]