Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, and also the name of the project's two operational aircraft. The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist Bertrand Piccard, who co-piloted Breitling Orbiter 3, the first balloon to circle the world non-stop. The Solar Impulse project's goals were to make the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power and to bring attention to clean technologies.
Solar Impulse
Solar Impulse 1 – fuselage and motors
Solar Impulse 1 during its first "flea hop" test flight in Dübendorf on 3 December 2009
Solar Impulse 1 at Brussels Airport in May 2011.
An electric aircraft is an aircraft powered by electricity.
Electric aircraft are seen as a way to reduce the environmental effects of aviation, providing zero emissions and quieter flights.
Electricity may be supplied by a variety of methods, the most common being batteries.
Most have electric motors driving propellers or turbines.
The Velis Electro became one of the first type certified crewed electric aircraft on 10 June 2020.
The NASA Pathfinder Plus electric-powered unmanned aerial vehicle
The 1918 Petróczy-Kármán-Žurovec PKZ-2 tethered helicopter followed the 1917 PKZ-1
The Militky MB-E1, a converted Brditschka HB-3 motor glider (later HB-23 pictured) was the first full-size electric aircraft