Elektra One Video and a Correction

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

This morning, your editor entered the press release and a photo of the PC Aero Elektra One in flight, noting that the landing gear was probably retracted to allow the low energy use reported by Calin Gologan, the plane’s designer.  The video and its accompanying text belie that assumption, and promise even better performance when the airplane is reconfigured in the near future. “Elektra One performed the first flight on 19 Mar. 2011 at the Augsburg Airport in Germany.  Jon Karkow, a well known test pilot and aircraft engineer performed the first flight.  Flight characteristics and engne parameter were tested. The test pilot was very satisfied with the results.  Three flights were performed. The climbing rate was 400 ft/min.  A new 30 min. flight was performed on 23 Mar.  Only about 3kW from the total on board of 6kWh energy was used.  In the next two weeks the new variable pitch propeller and the retractable landing gear will be installed.” …

Lucky 13 to Fly in Green Flight Challenge

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation 4 Comments

Following rigorous evaluations of all aircraft to ensure they meet all standards for the contest, Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, announced the 13 entrants who will compete in the Green Flight Challenge at Santa Rosa, California between July 11 and 17, 2011.  This exciting event will offer the public a first view of some incredible designs and resourceful competitors.  Since the minimum performance required for consideration includes things such as the ability to fly a 200 mile course at 100 mph or better average speed, the ability to clear a 50-foot barrier on a 2,000 foot runway during both takeoff and landing, and the efficiency to attain at least 200 passenger miles per gallon during the overall flight, all aircraft are obviously the most efficient aerial creations yet seen.  Rules were established to encourage designers to make “real world”, practical craft rather than specialized designs that could win the contest but find no real purpose or willing owners.  Even things such as cockpit design and …

5th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium Launches New Age of Flight

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

Dr. Brien Seeley, founder and President of the CAFE Foundation, shares this important news. SANTA ROSA, CA.—On April 29-30, 2011, an outstanding faculty from NASA, industry and academia will present the technologies necessary to inaugurate the Age of Electric Flight.  The 5th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium (EAS V) will reveal how safe, emission-free, 2-4 seat electric aircraft could soon make a doorstep-to-doorstep round trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a single battery charge at nearly twice the overall trip speed of airline travel.  The latest breakthroughs in energy storage, motors, quiet propulsion, powered lift, electronic pilot assistance, autonomous flight and aerodynamics will be presented along with proposals for how they can transform transportation. EAS V will again network its faculty with the attendees, including venture capitalists, leaders of the aircraft industry, government researchers and aviation enthusiasts in the highly successful evening Theme Dinners in the Grand Ballroom of the Flamingo Resort and Spa in Santa Rosa, California.  As …

First Rollout of a Green Flight Challenge Flyer

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC Leave a Comment

On November 22, 2010, PC-Aero rolled out Elektra One with a running motor, the Geiger HP-13.5 unit normally found on paramotors, trikes, and the Swift flown by Manfred Ruhmer.  Testing and the public unveiling took place at the Rotortec Company in Gonsried, Germany.  The airplane had shed the tricycle gear  it displayed at the Friedrichshafen Expo for Sustainable Mobility, where it had been a centerpiece in June, 2010.  It now sports what looks like a center-line retractable gear much like that of the Fournier motor gliders. A month later, December 22, the team “performed successfully the static tests of Elektra One for the German Ultralight Certification. The structure of the aircraft (wing, fuselage and tails) [were] loaded up to limit load.”  Test flights are set for January, and the aircraft is scheduled to participate in the Green Flight Challenge in July at Santa Rosa, California.  There, it will have to fly a  200 mile closed course on a single charge of its batteries at …

CAFE News: Comparing Apples, Bananas, Oranges and Doughnuts

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

One of the problems facing judges in the July Green Flight Challenge the CAFE Foundation is managing for NASA is that of determining fairly who gets the best fuel mileage.  Since “fuel” in this case can be traditional aviation gasoline, bio-diesel, electricity from batteries or solar panels, or some other energy storage medium, wildly different energy densities have to be taken into account. If TSA “freedom feels” seem intrusive, the scrutiny applied to GFC entrants and their craft will be even more onerous.  Aircraft will be impounded once inspected and registered, and the only contact pilots may have with their planes before taking off will be to “top off” their fuel tanks or batteries just before the start of their flight – all under constant monitoring. The widely and wildly differing energy densities for the different forms of motive power require careful definition of energy equivalencies.  One pound of gasoline, for instance, equals about 20,000 BTU, or 5.8 kilowatt hours, …

Green Flight Challenge: It Might Look Like a Quickie…

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation 11 Comments

But it will be the Feuling Green Flight Challenger, an entirely new iteration of the Quickie “formula” if Gene Sheehan, Vic Turner, Luke Leatherman and Allon McBee have their way.  Created in the wake of the Vari-Eze’s and Long-Eze’s of the early 1970’s, the original Quickie was an 18-horsepower Onan industrial engine-powered irreducible flying machine with great speed for its low power and unbelievable fuel economy.  The team’s GFC Challenger is electric, and a far cry from its cast iron past – or the iron-horse Harley-Davidson motorcycles that are part of its surroundings. “Feuling” comes from the high-performance motorcycle and automobile developer who started the company bearing his name.  Jim Feuling had over 100 patents to his name, worked with the big names in the racing world, and created a 500 mile-per-gallon engine (at 55 miles per hour) for Honda’s streamliner and fielded a record-breaking motorcycle streamliner that clocked 333.847 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats on October 20th, 1999. …

Green Flight Challenge: Six Steps to Synergy

Dean Sigler GFC, Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

Conventional wisdom says that an airplane is a collection of compromises – a premise seemingly borne out in practice.  Bigger wings mean slower speeds, but more lift.  Smaller engines mean less performance, but better economy.  Roomier cockpits mean lower fuel mileage and reduced cross-country range.  Everybody knows these things. But what if, applying the Firesign Theater’s comedic dictum, “Everything you know is wrong,” someone shook those bits of conventional wisdom and sorted out a new way of looking at an airplane?  It’s been done before.  Burt Rutan’s wildly creative approach to seeing past convention gave us the Varieze, Catbird, Boomerang, Proteus, Voyager, and Spaceship One, among others.  Because such creations don’t follow the usual scientific method of changing one variable at a time, but seem to take multiple detours around “normal” all at once, the results take us by surprise. John McGinnis, of Kalispell, Montana, seems to delight in taking uncomfortable turns around convention.  His presentation at the fourth annual …

CAFE News: Become a Part of Aviation History – Help Fund the Green Flight Challenge

Dean Sigler GFC Leave a Comment

The CAFE Foundation is a small, all volunteer, and remarkably effective group based at the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, California.  Consider that the Foundation Board members, eight strong, planned and executed all aspects of the fourth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium. This world-class gathering was the product of tight organization, shared goals, and truly remarkable, dedicated people. CAFE Foundation has also documented the performance and flying characteristics of over 25 popular light aircraft, providing scientifically accurate verification or rejection of the sometimes extravagant claims of builders and manufacturers.  They have created scientific instruments and techniques that have enhanced the collection of accurate data.  Hard work and honesty has provided a touchstone for the evaluation of modern light aircraft and earned the Foundation a reputation for reliability and credibility. CAFE’s reputation has led to its being chosen to be an Allied Organization with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to manage the Green Flight Challenge.  The …

An LSA With the Electric Heart of an Airliner

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC 9 Comments

Stephan Boutenko, Alternair President and founder, seeks a Light Sport Aircraft alternative, an airplane looking like an LSA, but loaded with features that will allow it to keep pace with the rapidly changing options coming to electric flight. Inspired by Yuneec’s E-430 but disappointed by its slow cruising speed, Boutenko was determined to create something more in line with LSA performance criteria. He also wanted to take advantage of the knowledge he had gained from years of experience with heavier aviation to create an integrated system that would allow flexibility and expandability in the development of his airplane. Unabashedly conventional in appearance, the low-wing, tricycle geared monoplane is conceived to make a pilot transitioning from an internal combustion powered machine feel right at home. The motor control electronics (MCE), for instance, are redundant, and the key-operated switch on the instrument panel has an OFF/ L(EFT MCE)/R(IGHT MCE)/BOTH function, matching the ignition switch for dual magnetos. Beyond that bow to tradition, …

CAFE News: Doctors Seeley and Ford Stand and Deliver

Dean Sigler GFC, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

At the fourth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium, April 23 and 24 at Rohnert Park, California, two CAFE leaders provided the audience with superb presentations on CAFE Foundation’s history and future goals. Dr. Larry Ford, Vice President of the organization, led with highlights from CAFE’s past, including the scientific efforts to measure aircraft drag and provide actual numbers for comparing aircraft performance, a goal inherent in the CAFE name. He highlighted the work of many past and present CAFE volunteers (after all, CAFE is all volunteer, and a 501c.3 charitable organization promoting aeronautical research at both the grass roots and the highest levels), including the CAFE Barograph, a significant instrument that allowed objective flight performance characterization of individual aircraft and honest comparisons between aircraft. Larry let audience members know about the contributions of Jack Norris, and his creation of “zero thrust glide testing.” This innovation involved finding the point at which the propeller was not creating drag or producing thrust. At …