It will be a long day for the Solar Impulse team, some of whom were up at midnight when the hangar doors swung open.

The HB-SIA emerged from the dark hangar at 05:30 with the final preparations and checks completed and with its batteries fully charged from its time in the sun on Friday morning. André boarded at 06:10 and the aircraft was towed to the end of the runway. Then came engine and control checks and at last the take off!

Mission director, Raymond Clerc, and his team are based in Payerne, Switzerland, and are coordinating the flight from the ground. He explained that the first challenge of the day will be to skirt Charles de Gaulle airport. André Borschberg will follow exactly the same flight path out as he flew in on, skirting CdG to the South, and  flying at low altitude (600 metres above sea level) for approximately two hours. Once clear, the HB-SIA will regain its cruising altitude of 3,500 metres and head for Troyes before following a path between Dijon and Belfort. If everything goes to plan, the aircraft will cross the French Swiss border at Brevine at approximately 15:00. It will approach from the direction of Besancon.

From then it becomes a waiting game and the HB-SIA will circle around Payerne and Morat while it waits for the local wind 'La Bise' to drop and for any thermal turbulency to fade with the sunset.

As Raymond Clerc explains, the forecast is absolutely perfect: "We have a light easterly up to 2,000 metres and a westerly above that which is so light it is negligable." As for the 'Bise' that is blowing over the Swiss plateau: "It will drop out towards the end of the afternon."

All in all dreamy conditions for the last flight of the Solar Impulse European campaign.

Weather permitting, the solar plane, piloted by André Borschberg, will take off from Paris-Le Bourget on Sunday 3 July at approximately 07:00. André will fly the plane at a cruising altitude of 3,500 metres in an easterly direction towards Troyes and then Pontarlier. The aircraft will cross the French Swiss border in the early afternoon and then circle over the areas of Payerne and Morat at 1,500 metres while waiting for clearance to land.

Don't miss the show if you live in these areas it is worth popping outside to see the Solar Impulse HB-SIA fly over!

The public is welcome to come and watch the aircraft land at about 19:00 from the hill next to the HB-SIA Solar Impulse team hangar. For those that are interested, you can also follow the flight from Paris to Payerne live online at www.solarimpulse.com or via the "Solar Impulse Inventing the Future" Smartphone app, free from Appstore and Android Market. The aircraft's position, altitude and speed will be streamed live online and footage from cameras set up in the aircraft cockpit and at Mission Control the nerve centre of the operation will put you at the heart of the action.

You can also follow the flight via Twitter: @andreborschberg and @solarimpulse.

We wish a safe flight to André and a safe flight to all those flying 'virtually'!

This was the culmination of a fantastic week for the whole Solar Impulse team. Every one of the 85 team members were on site to watch this highlight: engineers, electricians, builders and logistics people, who are normally dotted between Lausanne, Payerne and Dubendorf.

Last night the whole team got together for a cruise on the river Seine. Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, moved almost to tears, thanked the team for all their hard work, the project would have been impossible without such a group effort and their incredible determination! A year ago, the HB-SIA had barely done more than a few test flights. To be present today at the Paris Air Show and exhibiting to the highest ranking officials in the aviation industry is quite simply amazing.

The flight...

The technical team was up early to prepare the aircraft and Markus Scherdel, the test pilot, was at Solar Impulse HQ by 08:00 and raring to go. His grin spoke a thousand words and he confessed to feeling as emotional about the flight as Bertrand and André were the night before on the Seine. "I never imagined that we would be here, with so much achieved within such a short timeframe. It is an extraordinary success," he said. Markus also told me that during the flight he wouldn't have much time to look down at the public and to feel the special atmosphere below. "I will be focussing 99% of my attention on the flight as I have a very specific route to fly and it won't be simple with the wind and the turbulence."

At 10:00...

Everyone held their breath. The propellors started turning and the plane was airbourne in less than 10 seconds...The public was stunned. There was thunderous applause. After a week of enjoying fabulous displays, sometimes spectacular, but always noisy and polluting, Solar Impulse suddenly offered an astonishing alternative solution. HB-SIA soared above their heads slowly, majesticly and silently.

Bertrand Piccard, who MC'ed the event, was as emotional as his audience. The HB-SIA flew its course perfectly. On its approach to land, it was buffeted slightly by turbulence, but Markus Scherdel managed the situation with a calm hand.

Touch down!

The ground crew guided the HB-SIA wings and it came to rest just metres from an Airbus A-380. Two symbols of the future of aviation. Emotions overflowed and people had tears pouring down their faces.