A solar powered aircraft was flying in circles high over Switzerland at first light on Thursday, well on its way to completing a historic round the clock flight, the crew said.
Solar Impulse is attempting to make the first such flight on purely solar energy, defying the hours of darkness to keep aloft for more than 24 hours.
Applause and cheers broke out at mission control at Payerne airbase in western Switzerland as dawn broke at 5.43 am (0343 GMT) with the experimental plane still in the air.

The global economy is recovering faster than expected but Europe's debt crisis might stall the rebound and governments need to shore up shaky public confidence, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.
The IMF raised its 2010 world growth forecast to 4.6 percent from 4.1 percent in April and boosted estimates for the United States and China. But its quarterly World Economic Outlook warned that "risks have risen sharply" and Europe has to quickly resolve debt problems and restore confidence in its banks.

BP is aiming to plug its leaking Gulf of Mexico well by July 27, weeks sooner than forecast, according to a newspaper report on Thursday, while a battle between the U.S. government and the oil industry over a deepwater drilling ban heads to court.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday about 270,000 cars sold worldwide - including luxury Lexus sedans - have faulty engines, the latest quality lapse to hit the automaker following massive global recalls.
Japan's top-selling daily Yomiuri said in its evening edition that Toyota will inform the transport ministry of a recall on Monday. The paper cited no sources.

World Trade Organization judges gave the European Union a stinging rebuke on Wednesday, saying the EU must axe prohibited export subsidies to plane-maker Airbus (EAD.PA) which had injured U.S. rival Boeing (BA.N).
The WTO panel concluded Airbus had been able to launch a series of passenger jets only thanks to subsidies from the EU and member states Britain, France, Germany and Spain, without which it would be a very different and much weaker company.
The ruling marks a big setback for Airbus, but is not the end of its battle - the world's largest and costliest trade dispute - with Boeing over subsidies in the market for large civil aircraft worth $3 trillion over the next 20 years.

Apple Inc.'s newest iPhone was in hot demand Thursday as hundreds lined up outside stores in Tokyo, Berlin, New York and elsewhere to become among the first to own the device.
The iPhone 4's launch began in Japan and moved across France, Germany and the U.K. before going on sale in the U.S. at 7 a.m. in each time zone.

World stock markets mostly fell Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve struck a note of caution in its latest assessment of the world's biggest economy, indicating Europe's debt crisis poses a risk to the recovery.

The Azerbaijani National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) of the Economic Development Ministry has received 12 proposals in the course of tender to set up poultry meat production, broiler farms, or their reconstruction through the introduction of modern technologies, NFES Executive Director Shirzad Abdullayev said.

A day after agreeing to a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP's chief executive expects to tell Congress that he was "personally devastated" by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and understands the anger that Americans feel toward him and his company.

European stock markets rebounded on Wednesday and the euro dipped against the dollar as investors digested mixed signals on the strength of the global economy.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 0.20 percent in late morning deals, Frankfurt gained 0.38 percent and Paris won 0.61 percent following gains for some indices in Asia and overnight on Wall Street.