A robot plane is due to take off from Newfoundland later this month and fly 3,000 km across the Atlantic to Ireland without any human intervention whatsoever. The flight, say the developers of the plane, should take 24 hours. The 14-kg plane has been designed by researchers at the University of Washington, USA, and a Newfoundland-based technology company, Insitu. The team's ultimate aim to build a robot plane capable of collecting weather data.