The Swiss-built Solar Impulse aircraft has already made a successful nine-hour intercontinental flight from Madrid, Spain to Rabat, Morocco in June 2012.
With a wingspan of 63.3 metres, it is nearly the same width as a Boeing 747 – although it weighs 1,600 kg compared to Boeing’s 400 tonnes, and carries only a single pilot.
Solar Impulse will leave San Francisco, California on 1 May, and work its way to Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, and Washington D.C., before heading to New York City.
The plane is made largely of carbon fibre with photovoltaic cells that can recharge the aircraft’s batteries enough to keep it flying through the night.
It has already made a 26-hour flight in Europe.
The plane is capable of flying across the United States at 69 km per hour, around a tenth of the speed of a commercial airliner.
Along the way, its pilots intend to show off the plane at technology showcases and conferences.
“The question is not to use the solar power for normal airlines, “ said co-pilot and company president Bertrand Piccard last week.
“The question is more to demonstrate that we can achieve incredible goals, almost impossible goals, with new technologies, without fuel, just with solar energy, and raise awareness that it we can do it in the air, of course everybody can do it on the ground.”
The company says they are working on a prototype of a solar plane they intend to fly around the world in 2015.