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Tue, Jul 18, 2006

Japanese Students Fly Battery-Powered Plane

No, Not A Remote-Controlled Model

Got any spare batteries lying around the house? You know... household batteries, the kind you use for flashlights, stereos and the like... and if the Japanese have a say... one day you might just be able to power an airplane with those Duracells, too.

Students from the Tokyo Institute of Technology took to the skies Sunday, after one of them flew a battery-powered plane a distance of 1,283 feet at an airfield north of the capital. A spokesman for Matsushita Electric Industrial Company -- sponsor of the project -- said it was the first such battery-powered flight in history... and the students hope the Japan Aeronautic Association will recognize the flight as such.

For the record, the plane -- which only weighed 97 pounds, without its 139-pound pilot onboard -- was powered by 160 double-A batteries... has a 102-foot wingspan... and, in the words of one student, flew "beautifully" on its one-minute flight.

One minute, eh? Maybe they should try Energizers. They keep going... and going... and going...

FMI: www.titech.ac.jp/

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