Students in Japan have taken to the sky in quite an unlikely contraption.

A group of students from the Tokyo Institute of Technology flew in a plane powered only by household batteries.

The craft, sponsored by Matsushita Electric Industrial, flew 1,283 feet just outside of Tokyo.

According to the Scotsman, the plane, with a 31-metre wing span but weighing just 44kg, was piloted by a 63kg student for the trip, which lasted about one minute. The power was provided by 160 AA batteries. "I didn't think it would fly so beautifully," said one of the students involved.