The Lindbergh Foundation and the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize combine forces to present electric aviation events during the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In in late March, according to information from Erik Lindbergh and Yolanka Wulff. First, the International Workshop for Electric Aircraft Standardization will take place during the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In at Lakeland Florida on Wednesday, March 28. The workshop will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn and “brings together civil aviation authorities, researchers, and manufacturers/designers for discussions on standardizing technologies of this emerging aircraft category. The workshop concludes with our second official Electric Aircraft Development Alliance (EADA) meeting.” The Lindbergh organizations hope that EADA will partner with ASTM (formerly the American Standards for Testing and Materials) and an alliance of aircraft builders to develop standards and confront regulatory issues, advocate for electric aircraft industry goals, promote and network for future flight, and educate the public on these exciting new technologies and their promise. On Thursday March 29, a series …
Pipistrel’s Flight Through Wine Country
Brien Seeley forwards a video of Pipistrel’s historic, Collier Trophy nominated electric powered flight. He notes, “It applies its performance data file and a weather map overlay to annotate scenes of the visual beauty of the Sonoma Wine Country,” a feature that will also delight visitors to Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport when they attend the electric aircraft flight demonstrations that are part of this year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium. The Team will present details of their aircraft and its achievement at the 6th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium on April 27, 2012 in Santa Rosa, for which registration can be obtained online. The video will remind one of the weather overlays Dr. Jack Langelaan created for his autonomous soaring exercises, and which were also shown to be helpful in general aviation flight planning and execution.
The Green Lantern Glows Again, and Again
A French biochemist, Pierre Calleja, has devised a lamp that absorbs CO2 for its energy source, and which could clean up city streets while throwing a verdant light on them. A few are in use, but the unit is not yet ready for widespread installation. The “big screen” lamp shown in the video, 1.5 cubic meters (53 cubic feet) in volume, could absorb as much as a ton of carbon from the air every year – the same amount absorbed by 150 to 200 trees. The large tank is filled with algae, more often used to create biofuels, but used directly here to make light. Calleja envisions using such lamps on streets, or as shown, in underground parking garages, where a green, but clean, glow would be a welcome relief from the smog-filled darkness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWDex5mh5Y&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL87CA1B0B16E786D3 Mike Thompson, an arts graduate from Design Academy in Eindhoven has something similar, the Latro Algae Lamp, inspired by “research conducted by Yansei and Stanford …
New FAI Records for Electric Flight
Jean Luc Soullier of Belgium claimed three world records for electric aircraft in the FAI RAL1E (microlight electric, single place, landplane with moveable aerodynamic controls) sub-class on February 2, 2012 at Sisteron, France – home of Electravia. All three records are being scrutinized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. Soullier attained an altitude of 2,401 meters (7,877 feet), covered 50.27 kilometers (31.17 miles) over a closed circuit course without landing, and averaged 136.36 kilometers per hour (84.54 mph) for that distance. All records are claimed in Soullier’s Colomban MC-30 Luciole, powered by a Lynch-type motor and controller supplied by Electravia. These are not the MC-30’s or Soullier’s first records. He set a speed record on a 15 kilometer course with the airplane’s previous power system, and a few months later in 2011, set a speed record before the airplane’s sponsor, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco while at the Aero Expo at Friedrichshafen. The official record was cancelled, however, …
Better Batteries: Enviable Achievement from Envia
Envia, a startup battery company in Newark, California, has announced a much-anticipated breakthrough in lithium-polymer storage cell energy density. Although tested to 300 charge/discharge cycles, the new battery should show at least 1,000 successful cycles before we get too excited. Excitement will build, though, as the announced 400 Watt-hours per kilogram doubles the current energy density standard for lithium batteries. This would reduce a Leaf’s battery pack from about 600 pounds to 300 pounds, or keeping the same weight, double the car’s range to about 250 miles. Dr. Brien Seeley points out that the Green Flight Challenge-winning Pipistrel G4 could have traversed 400 miles with a reserve on such batteries. According to Envia, quoting from the official report, “’The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) Test & Evaluation Branch was tasked by Advanced Research Products Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to perform Verification & Validation testing on two high capacity lithium ion pouch type cells, manufactured by Envia Systems …
Better Batteries: Wrap It in Seaweed
MIT’s Technology Review reported last September that researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Clemson University had formulated a way to keep silicon anodes in lithium batteries from cracking under the strain of expending and contracting while they charge and discharge. They added a “binding agent and food additive derived from algae” that is in turn derived from seaweed. This enables the anode to charge and discharge at an eight times greater rate than an equivalent carbon anode without breaking down, a common problem for “raw” silicon. Environmentally friendly, the manufacturing processes for this type of anode are claimed to be clean and inexpensive. According to the Technology Review, “Lithium-ion batteries store energy by accumulating ions at the anode; during use, these ions migrate, via an electrolyte, to the cathode. The anodes are typically made by mixing an electroactive graphite powder with a polymer binder—typically polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)—dissolved in a solvent called NMP (N-Methylpyrrolidone). The resulting slurry is spread …
Pneumatically Pumped Up
Robert J. Englar is Principal Research Engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Georgia Tech Research Institute in the Aerospace & Acoustics Technology Branch. Responsible for research project direction and development of advanced technologies in aerodynamics, he added a different type of discipline to those presented at the fifth Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium last April in Santa Rosa, California. His research combines attempts to achieve low noise, high lift and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities while applying pneumatic power to the equation. Not to be confused with inflatable rafts, pneumatic, in this case, refers to the careful routing of high-pressure airstreams over very different airfoil and high-lift device surfaces, and has led to measured coefficients of lift in the 8.5 to 9.0 range. By comparison, a conventional STOL craft may generate a CL of 3.3 (Zenith Air 801) and the Custer Channel Wing claimed, with its propeller blast channeled through a semi-circular wing (hence the name), an infinite CL. …
Cool Bike, Cooler Batteries
A few years ago, Purdue University students Jim Danielson and Sean Kleinschmidt, helped launch the Purdue Electric Vehicles Club with physics major Tony “Danger” Coiro, who had created his own solar-powered motorcycle from a 1978 Suzuki he purchased for $50. Coiro drove around on his sun-mobile for less than one cent per mile. Just out of high school, Danielson and Kleinschmidt found another frugal ride, a 924 Porsche for a mere $500. The blown engine wasn’t a problem, since they replaced it with an electric forklift motor, controller and battery. The looks were great, although the poky top speed and lackadaisical acceleration strained against the image. Their initial success sent Kleinschmidt to a summer internship at Tesla where he worked on battery development and Danielson to Electro-Motive Diesel, where he helped create motor control electronics. besides founding the EV club, the trio oversaw construction of the 17 electric race karts that students built for the first-ever electric vehicle grand prix, …
Several Groups Now Testing Electric Taxiing
It must at least seem like a good idea, because three different enterprises are taxi testing Airbuses with electric landing gear wheels meant to replace the large “tugs” that can be seen every day at airports around the world pushing jet airliners away from their boarding ramps. In current normal practice, the jets, with their engines at idle, are pushed onto a taxiway, at which point the tug disengages and the jet throttles up to begin the usually long taxi to a waiting runway. Quirkily capitalized easyJet, the United Kingdom’s largest airline, is working with Honeywell and Safran to develop and test their version of this new technology, which they label the electric green taxiing system (EGTS). EGTS-equipped aircraft can taxi without the use of their jet engines by using the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) generator to power motors in the main wheels. Electromechanical actuators on each of the aircraft’s powered wheels and what would need to be fairly-sophisticated motor …
Pipistrel G4 Nominated for Collier Trophy
Taja Boscarol, Public Relations Manager for Pipistrel, sends this news today: “The Pipistrel Taurus G4, world’s first 4-seat electric aircraft, was nominated for the prestigious Collier Trophy. “The Collier Trophy, the ‘Greatest Award in Aviation,’ has been the benchmark of aviation and aerospace achievement for over 100 years. Awarded annually, ‘…for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America,’ it has been bestowed upon some of the most important projects, programs, individuals, and accomplishments in our nation’s history.” Collier-winning individuals have included the crews of Apollo 11 and 8, Mercury 7, Scott Crossfield, Elmer Sperry and Howard Hughes. Projects and Programs have included the B-52, Polaris Missile, Surveyor Moon Landing Program, Boeing 747, Cessna Citation, Gulfstream V, the F-22 and the International Space Station. This year’s nominees for the 2011 Robert J. Collier Trophy are Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, the Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy, the Gamera human-powered helicopter, and the G4. National Aeronautics Association Chairman Walter J. Boyne explains the …