Swiss adventurer 'smashes altitude record' in solar-powered plane [View all]

The SolarStratos pilot reached 9,521 metres in a flight that lasted five hours and nine minutes, after making the most of rising warm air currents

By Charles Bremner
Wednesday August 13 2025, 2.31pm BST, The Times

A Swiss adventurer has piloted his solar energy aircraft over the Alps to what is claimed to be a world altitude record for manned electric flight.

Raphael Domjan reached 9,521 metres (31,234 feet) aboard the experimental SolarStratos after the propeller-driven aircraft climbed, with help from rising warm air currents, after taking off from Sion, in southwest Switzerland.

The altitude, which has yet to be certified, passed the previous 9,235-metre (30,298ft) record set in 2010 by the Solar Impulse, a giant solar energy plane developed by the Swiss solar aviation pioneers André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard.
Raphael Domjan preparing for take-off LAURENT GILLIERON/EPA

Domjan, 53, who calls himself an “eco-explorer”, has been developing the SolarStratos to prove that “clean technologies can not only equal but surpass the potential of fossil fuels”. He aims to take the aircraft, which has a 25-metre wingspan covered in solar cells, soaring eventually into the stratosphere.
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https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/swiss-pilot-solar-plane-solarstratos-x8l7w7ns2#Echobox=1755093130-1