is also free to use.

The Climate Impulse, a plane powered by liquid hydrogen, is displayed in a hangar in Les Sables d’Olonne, France on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Yohan Bonnet)The Climate Impulse, a plane powered by liquid hydrogen, is displayed in a hangar in Les Sables d’Olonne, France on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Yohan Bonnet)

First test flights are planned next year, but the grueling round-the-world trip is set for 2028. Made with lightweight composites, the plane is dependent on several untested innovations and is far from a sure bet.Piccard says a major airplane manufacturer wouldn’t take on the risk of producing a prototype such as Climate Impulse in case it fails.”It’s my job to be a pioneer,” he said in an interview. “We have to show it’s possible, then it’s a big incentive for the others to continue.”

Even if the project is successful, experts say green hydrogen-powered flight on a commercial scale would be decades away at best. The project has lured tens of millions of euros of investment, and the team of dozens of staffers is growing.The solar-powered plane was a technological feat in 2015, but wasn’t scalable, said Climate Impulse engineer and co-pilot Raphael Dinelli. Limited in range, that plane had to make more than a dozen stops on its trip around the world.

Climate Impulse is supposed to take off unassisted, fly some 40,000 kilometers (about 25,000 miles) around Earth along the Equator and return to its starting point with no mid-air refueling — and with no stops at all.

Swiss aviation pioneer Bertrand Piccard, center, Raphael Dinelli, left, Climate Impulse engineer and co-pilot, and project manager Cyril Haenel speak in front of the wings of the Climate Impulse, a plane powered by liquid hydrogen, at the press presentation of the project in a hangar in Les Sables d’Olonne, France on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025.(AP Photo/Yohan Bonnet)Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)Fifty-nine hostages are still in Gaza, around a third of them believed to be alive. Most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. The Hostages Families Forum, the grassroots forum representing most hostage families, said Alexander’s release “must mark the beginning of a comprehensive agreement” that will free everyone.

Trump, whose administration has voiced full support for Israel’s actions,, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week in a regional tour.