Solar-Powered Plane 太阳能飞机

By Imogen Foulkes, Berne

The plane is not designed to carry passengers

体英语会带大家一起学习BBC撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。

Background: 背景：一架太阳能试验飞机在瑞士成功完成了第一次试航。阳光动力是瑞士冒险家Bertrand Piccard 的宝贝。1999年他成为世界上第一个用热气球完成其不间断环球旅行的人。他的梦想是在2012年能驾驶太阳能飞机环绕世界。

(FX take off and cheers)

The long-awaited take-off of the Solar Impulse was greeted with delight by those who have spent the last seven years working on it.

The solar-powered plane has the wing-span of a jumbo jet, but weighs less than a family car.

It doesn't use a single drop of aviation fuel, instead its giant wings are covered with solar cells.

The project is the brainchild of Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard - he sees the Solar Impulse as a sign of things to come.

"I don't know exactly how commercial airliners will fly in twenty years. But I know for sure that they are not going to fly like today. If an aeroplane can fly around the world with no fuel, nobody can say afterwards that it's impossible to do the same for cars or heating systems or whatever."

But the Solar Impulse won't replace conventional air travel. Its top speed is just 44 miles an hour (70kph).

Nevertheless Bertrand Piccard hopes to fly the plane around the world in 2012, thus continuing a long family tradition.

His grandfather was the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere.

His father took a submarine to the deepest point of the Pacific Ocean.

Now Bertrand Piccard hopes to show the world just what can be achieved with a little bit of sunshine.