Photos: One ultralight, 160 AA batteries

There's hardly a gadget in the world today that doesn't require AA batteries--but 160 of them? That's how many it takes to power this ultralight being set up for launch by students of the Tokyo Institute of Technology on Saturday.

Here, a student checks the power levels of the Panasonic Oxyride batteries before Saturday's test flight. The aircraft's length is a little more than 30 feet, and it has a wingspan of about 100 feet. The material used to construct the plane included carbon fiber and Styrofoam.

In the test flight, at the Fuji River glider port in Kambara, Japan, the manned ultralight traveled all of a couple hundred meters.