MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) -- A solar-powered plane that has wowed aviation fans in Europe is preparing to fly across North America.

The Swiss creators of the Solar Impulse are announcing Thursday which U.S. cities the experimental plane will visit during its "Across America" tour that kicks off in May.

Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will display the aircraft and discuss the cross-country trip at a news conference at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.



In 2010, the solar plane flew non-stop for 26-hour to demonstrate that the aircraft could soak up enough sunlight to keep it airborne through the night. A year later, it took it on its first international flight to Belgium and France.


Before its coast-to-coast American trip, the Solar Impulse will take test flights around the San Francisco Bay area in April, officials said.


Piccard comes from a long line of adventurers. His late father, Jacques, was an oceanographer and engineer who plunged deeper beneath the ocean than any other man. His grandfather Auguste, also an engineer, was the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere.