As the SolarImpulse team retires their successful earth-rounding solar-powered electric airplane, another team has stepped up to take the technology to the stratosphere, with a project to fly a solar-powered aircraft to 75,000 feet. The SolarStratos team, based in Switzerland, is led by Raphael Domjan, who in 2012 circumnavigated the Earth aboard PlanetSolar, a solar-powered boat. He said he intends to push SolarStratos "to its utter limits" in an effort to prove that renewable energy has "incredible capacities and will enable us to preserve our planet." The group plans to build a two-seat solar airplane with a wingspan of 78 feet and weighing under 1,000 pounds.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/recent-updates/business-military/solar-team-aims-for-record-flight