Icarus was a visionary

Icarus may have flown too close to the sun, but a new airplane has demonstrated how effectively it can fly with the sun.

UK defence technology company Qinetiq has been developing a solar-powered airplane they call Zephyr, and it has just had a record-breaking flight confirmed by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, in which it broke unmanned flight altitude and duration records. Flying for 336 hours, 22 minutes and eight seconds, it broke the previous record by a factor of 11, earning it the title of  'eternal plane'!

The full story, including a video, is here.