This morning, Andre’ Borschberg and Bertand Piccard revealed the potential route for Solar Impulse’s Across America mission in a press conference at Moffett Airfield in Mountain View, California. The airplane is fully reassembled after being brought to America on a Boeing 747. Test flights will begin March 30th, and a technical flight “to test the aircraft’s mission readiness” for the coast-to-coast flight will take place March 30th. According to the Solar Impulse project, “The voyage will start in San Francisco on May 1st with stopovers in Phoenix (Arizona), Dallas (Texas), Atlanta (Georgia) or St. Louis (Missouri) on its way to Washington D.C. and New York City. The exact dates for each leg are undefined, as weather conditions play a factor in our flights.” The team promises, “Finally, we wanted to let you know that the Solar Impulse team is working very hard to open the hangar doors to all supporters and enthusiasts that wish to see the airplane. Working out …
Reanimating a 30-Year-Old Canard with an Electrical Charge
The CC01e, a tiny, single-seat canard design by Frenchman Claude Chudzik, flew for the first time in 30 years years, now powered by an Electravia-supplied motor system. Taking off from Nangis airport, team member Frederic Laude gingerly guided the airplane on its single circuit of the field. He reported some tendency to “marsouine,” or porpoise, of which he’d been forewarned, and managed to keep the pitch oscillations in check. Based on the team’s report on their blog, he accelerated to 60 knots (69 mph), pulled lightly on the stick and “jumped” off the runway. You can see the porpoise-like bobble immediately after lift-off, and Frederic’s ability to get things under control quickly. Once on track, he reached 94 knots (108 mph) in the pattern and managed a reasonable landing on the craft’s single-track landing gear. Originally flown with a 25-horsepower two-stroke engine, the aircraft has been reconfigured for a Lynch-type, 50-horsepower motor, controller and battery package supplied by Electravia. …
On a Clear Day, I Can See My iPad
Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, shared the news of an exciting breakthrough that could make the see-through parts of an airplane’s solar collectors. Most solar collectors have a black or near-black look because they are absorbing light in the visible spectrum. Pulling energy from infrared or ultraviolet spectra invisible to the human eye allows Ubiquitous Energy’s Clearview Power translucent film of to be laid over iPad and Kindle screens and keep them charged constantly. Consider the possibilities of such films covering the Plexiglas or carbonate canopies on aircraft. Even those portions could then be energy collectors. On craft such as electric sustainer motor powered sailplanes, the glazed area comprises a large part of the total fuselage surface area. According to the MIT Technology Review, “…The transparent solar cells are made of various organic layers, deposited one at a time on top of a glass or film. This process could easily be integrated into thin-film deposition systems found …
Can You Top These?
Anne Lavrand of Electravia sends news that Jean Luce Soullier’s speed record set last September has been ratified by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). He now holds four FAI world records, and Ms. Lavrand’s total climbs to five, including the speed record set by Hugues Duval flying the MC15E twin electric Cri-Cri down Le Bourget’s main runway at 283 km./hr. (175.46 mph) during the 2011 Paris Air Show. SUB-CLASS TYPE OF RECORD PERFORMANCE DATE CLAIMANT STATUS ID RAL1E Speed over a straight course 189.87 km/h 2012-09-29 Jean Luc Soullier (BEL) ratified – current record 16638 RAL1E Altitude 2366 m 2012-02-27 Jean Luc Soullier (BEL) ratified – current record 16497 RAL1E Distance over a closed circuit without landing 50.13 km 2012-02-27 Jean Luc Soullier (BEL) ratified – current record 16496 RAL1E Speed over a closed circuit of 50 km 136.4 km/h 2012-02-27 Jean Luc Soullier (BEL) ratified – current record 16495 Soullier hit 189.87 kilometers per hour (117.72 mph) in his …
World’s First Electric Tilt-Rotor Aircraft
AugustaWestland, after keeping the world’s first electric tilt-rotor aircraft under wraps for nearly two years, is letting the public in on its exciting new design. According to the company, “The tilt rotor technology demonstrator is completely electric powered; designed to hover like a helicopter and convert to a fixed wing aircraft in forward flight thanks to its two integrated rotors which can be tilted through more than 90 degrees. The demonstrator performed its first unmanned tethered flight in June 2011 at AgustaWestland’s Cascina Costa facility in Italy and has since performed untethered hovering flights inside a secured area.” Emulating Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey flight characteristics, Project Zero affirms that AugustaWestland thinks tilt-rotor technology is “the best layout for the future of fast vertical lift aircraft.” VerticalMag.com explains the aerodynamics and controls of the new vehicle: “During cruise, the wings will provide most of the lift, with the blended fuselage and shroud also making a contribution. ‘Project Zero’ has been designed …
New “Leaf” Turns Over More Energy
Scientists have been working on imitating nature’s ability to photosynthesize the sun’s energy, much as plants turn that energy into food for their health and growth. Daniel Nocera, for instance, created an artificial leaf that split water into oxygen and hydrogen that could fire up a small fuel cell and run an electric light. According to a Science Pub lecture your editor recently attended, an eight-ounce glass of water can power a 60-Watt bulb for 20 hours. Nocera, in a Pop! Tech talk, claims an Olympic-size swimming pool could supply all the world’s energy needs. Nocera now works at Harvard, but researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), his former home, are taking his work further, detailing all the limitations that keep his “artificial leaf” from giving off more storable energy. As explained in the MIT press release, “The original demonstration leaf, in 2011, had low efficiencies, converting less than 4.7 percent of sunlight into fuel… But the team’s new …
Could This Be the Ford Bi-Motor?
The original Ford Tri-Motor had a body by Ford and three Pratt & Whitney radial engines arrayed across its nose and wings. The Phantom Eye has a body by Boeing, and two 2.3-liter Ford engines fueled by the hydrogen the airplane carries in its bulbous fuselage. It first flew last June, but hit a snag on landing, or at least dug in and twisted a landing skid, rendering it inoperable until this year. Boeing performed software and hardware upgrades, including strengthening the landing gear. Its second flight was a big success with a successful landing – a great one even, since the airplane is reuseable. This is particularly helpful for Boeing, which funded the project out of its own pocket. The company commented on the expectations raised by the flight: “Boeing’s liquid hydrogen-powered Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system completed its second flight Feb. 25, demonstrating capabilities that will allow it to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions for up …
What Do You Have on Your DVD Burner?
Richard Kaner and Maher El-Kady have “micro-scale graphene-based supercapacitors” on their front DVD burner, showing an energetic alternative to saving all those ‘80’s rockers to disc. Dr. Kaner is a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and professor of chemistry and biochemistry. He and graduate student El-Kady are using a “consumer grade” LightScribe DVD burner to make dozens of micro supercapacitors on what looks like a typical DVD. Dr. Kaner’s research lab hosts 17 undergraduate and graduate student researchers who’ve helped amass at least 390 papers in four main areas of research; conducting polymers, graphene, superhard materials and thermoelectric materials. Their recent investigation of supercapacitor fabrication seems to encompass almost all of these fields. An abstract for their recent article in Nature Communications hints at the possibilities this research may realize in the commercial world. “The rapid development of miniaturized electronic devices has increased the demand for compact on-chip energy storage. …
Solar Impulse is Here
Solarimpulse.com reports, “The Boeing 747 landed at Moffett Airfield in San Francisco at 1:13 PM (UTC-8) on Thursday 21 February. HB-SIA was immediately unloaded and, in the coming days reassembly will begin.” Almost immediately, crews will assemble and test fly the already intercontinental solar-powered aircraft in preparation for a flight from the Bay Area to the East Coast. Having conquered the gap between Europe and Africa on its trip to Rabat, Morocco and on to Quarzazate, HB-SIA braved turbulence and gusting that caused it to turn back on its initial foray into the desert. Its final arrival at a gigantic solar energy plant in Morocco’s interior was a symbol of what clean energy can accomplish and a tribute to Solar Impulse’s pilots’ skills and the team’s imaginative creation. Now, the Airbus-sized vehicle is being readied for flight testing, with possible appearances at the seventh annual Electric Aircraft Symposium and its Cross America 2013 tour. HB-SIA’s recent trip from Payerne, Switzerland …
A Fix for Dreamliner Battery Woes?
With Boeing facing financial doldrums because of its ongoing grounding and resulting slump in sales of the 787 Dreamliner, the stakes are high for the company. That makes today’s Reuters’ report that the manufacturing giant may have found a “way to fix battery problems on its grounded 787 Dreamliner jets” good news for not only Boeing, but for electric aircraft in general. Readers should read these findings with some caution, though, since another report from Japan gives a different possible cause for the problems. That said, the two reports might not be mutually exclusive. Many electric light aircraft developers use spacing between cells and some method to circulate cooling air over them. In Boeing’s two 787 lithium battery packs, eight large cells fill a fairly tight housing. Reuters quotes an anonymous source, “’The gaps between cells will be bigger. I think that’s why there was overheating,’ said the source, who declined to be identified because the plans are private. “A …