Solar plane prepares for international flight
The Solar Impulse team says the flights to Belgium and France are a big challenge because the plane will need to navigate across international air traffic networks.
The single-seater prototype with the wingspan of a Boeing 777 made its 2009 maiden flight in Switzerland and further tests have all taken place there.
Pilot Andre Borschberg said the success of the first cross-border flights depends on the team receiving authorization from national authorities.
The team says it will ready the plane from May 2 and take off to Brussels when weather conditions are right.
The plane is expected at the 49th International Paris Air Show from June 20-26.
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German coalition backs electricity subsidy for industries
BERLIN - Germany’s three-party coalition is debating whether electricity prices for energy-intensive industries should be subsidised to prevent companies from moving production abroad.
Calls to reduce the electricity bill for big industrial producers are being made by leading politicians, who, like others in Germany, fear the country could lose its position as an industrial powerhouse as it gradually shifts away from fossil fuel-based production.
“It is in the interest of all of us that this strong industry, which we undoubtedly have in Germany, is preserved,” Lars Klingbeil, head of Germany’s leading government party SPD (S&D), told Bayrischer Rundfunk on Wednesday.
To achieve this,…
