A solar-powered plane that can fly in the dark is soon going to make a cross-country flight. From Steve Henn at NPR:

“Next month, a very odd looking plane will take off from Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif., and head east to New York. The Solar Impulse — the world’s first solar-powered plane — is capable of flying nonstop all day and all night. Its creators plan to fly it across the U.S. this spring, and by 2015 they hope to fly a similar aircraft around the world.

Its wingspan is longer than a 747 Boeing, but the entire plane weighs less than a car.

‘That was the challenge,’ says Andre Borschberg, one of the creators and a pilot. He says the wings are so large in part to generate lift and in part to create a bigger surface ‘to integrate solar cells.'”

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Solar Impulse as featured on 60 Minutes: