Swiss solar plane to fly across the Mediterranean in May

(Solar Impulse)

The Swiss team that built the world’s most advanced solar-powered plane is planning to head to the Mediterranean next month.

Adventurer Bertrand Piccard told The Associated Press on Friday that the 2,500-kilometer trip from Switzerland to Morocco will take two days and see stopovers in Madrid and Rabat.

Piccard says the jumbo jet-sized prototype single-seater plane will face new challenges including crossing the Pyrenees mountains and the turbulence over the Straits of Gibraltar before reaching its final destination in the desert city Ouarzazate.

He says the team is aiming for a round-the-world flight in 2014.

The high-tech aircraft, which has the wingspan of a large airliner but weighs no more than a saloon car, made history in July 2010 as the first manned plane to fly around the clock on the sun's energy.

It holds a record for the longest flight by a manned solar-powered aeroplane after staying aloft for 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds above Switzerland, also setting a record for altitude by flying at 9,235 metres (30,298 feet).

It has since flown several times, notably between the Geneva and Zurich airports, as well as to Paris and Brussels.