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The first Solar powered flight was on November 4th,1974 in camp Irwin California, it was designed by R.J. Boucher and flew for a total of 20 minutes at 100 feet up. This flight was labeled, Sunrise I, and would change the aviation business.
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So after the first few successful flights of Sunrise I it got damaged in a sandstorm during the summer. so in September of 1975 Sunrise II was made, but like its predecessor, it didn't run for a long time as it was damagend in its command and control system.
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On the other side of the world, there was a man by the name of Helmut Bruss who lived in Germany and was working on a solar plane. now he never heard of the Sunrise I or II but had another plane in mind the Solaris. now he made it around the summer of 1975 but couldnt get it in the air just yet, due to overheating of the solar cells. but one year later (in 1976) the Solaris did 3 flights of 150 seconds and reached 5,000 feet. (FL50)
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starting in April of 1979 a man named Larry Mauro flew a solar riser which is like a glider the solar panels on the side were kinda like a battery for the engine, the glider flew for over 800 meters.
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in 1979 a sucessful flight across the english channel was made by a flight called the Gossamer Albatross.
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a smaller plane called the Gossamer Penguin was designed and R.J. Boucher was a key consultant to the project and he provided the engine and solar cells of the two Solar planes.
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in 1981 The Solar Challenger flew from Puntoise-Cormeilles to Manston RAF base in 5 hours.
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As the years went by more solar planes were becoming a thing in 1996 Dave Beck from Wisconsin made a solar plane called the Solar Solitude. it flew 38 kilometers (23 miles) and two years later reached up to 1,283 feet.
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The project was funded by a European program and ran between January 2000 and 200. it was a solar powered high altitude plane
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After all these years the last major project was the solar-impulse constructed by two Swiss men. it was introduced in 2003 and they planned to do a continent to continent flight in 2011
