This is just too cool:
Record-breaking balloonist Brian Jones is planning to fly around the world in a solar-powered aircraft.
He will pilot the yet-to-be built plane with his ballooning partner Bertrand Piccard.The pair completed the first circumnavigation by balloon in March 1999 in Breitling Orbiter 3.
As well as being a world-first, Jones’s planned solar aviation feat is designed to raise awareness of green technology and renewable energy
The power of the sun has already put a plane in the air. Helios is an unmanned aircraft part designed by Nasa scientists which first flew in 1999.
But the technology to keep such an aircraft in the air for days rather than hours is still being developed.
Awesome.