What Has One Engine, Six Motors and Seven Propellers?

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

EcoPulse™, a collaboration by Airbus, Daher, and Safran is a fixed-wing distributed hybrid propulsion aircraft whose power system emulates many of the Urban Air Mobility vehicles that use an electric Vertical Take Off and Landing configuration.  Safran, notable for its gas turbines, will supply the propulsion system (excluding batteries).  The system consists of a turbogenerator (combined turbine and power generator), an electric power management system, and integrated electric thrusters (or e-Propellers) including electric motors and propellers faired neatly into the wings. EcoPulse partners claim the six small electric motors spread along the leading edge, while providing propulsion thrust, lead to a reduction of wing surface area – much of the wing gaining lift from the blown areas, lowered wingtip marginal vortices from the thrusters on the wing tips, and therefore lowered drag. Airbus will oversee aerodynamic optimization of the distributed propulsion system, installation of “high-energy density” batteries and their use to power the six electric motors.  Daher will oversee component …

Pipistrel Electrics in America and France

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, Pipistrel rolled out its new 801 at the UBER Elevate Summit in Washington, D. C. last week and is flying its Alpha Electro Trainer at the Paris Air Show all this week. Launching the 801 at UBER Elevate Dr. Tine Tomažič, Pipistrel’s Director of Research & Development, was a keynote speaker at the conference in Washington, D.C. on June 11, where he presented just enough to whet appetites for more on the coming 801 eVTOL design.  His final touch – presenting an ostensibly realistic recording of the 801’s sound, demonstrated how quiet the vehicle will be. That’s accounted for by the eight fans being tuned to different frequencies, cancelling each other out like the dynamics in noise-cancelling headphones.  That’s just one of the design factors in a well-integrated design.  Its integrated lift system, embedded in the craft’s wings, help mitigate noise. The specially-shaped fans will operate at relatively low RPMs, another step in reducing noise.  Conceptual …

Silent Air Taxi Competes for Commuters

Dean Sigler Announcements, Hybrid Aircraft, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

A quandary is a state of perplexity or doubt, and people caught in one often devolve into depression or unhappiness.  Our quandary today comes from the announcement of the Silent Air Taxi, a fixed-wing, hybrid-powered, box-wing aircraft.  The quandary comes from whether it’s better to transport one’s self to a nearby small airport and hop on a low-slung commuter aircraft that requires only a 400-meter (1,312 feet, or about a quarter mile) runway.  Or, to call up an on-demand Urban Air Mobility device, use the urban infrastructure and hie one’s self to an Uber SkyPort or a Volocopter launch pad. Its designers, mainly from Aachen, Germany’s academia and industry, point out that in Germany about 25-percent of the population lives within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the 378 small and medium-sized airports that meet the Silent Air Taxi’s takeoff requirements.   50-percent of the population lives within a 20-kilometer (12.4 mile) radius of such an airport.  If those seeking a quick …

Ampaire Flies Hybrid Test Bed

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Ampaire, a tech startup based in California, announces, “Our mission is to be the world’s most trusted developer of practical, compelling electric aircraft from short-haul cargo to supersonic passenger transport.”  They also claim to have demonstrated the “highest-capacity electric aircraft ever flown” last Thursday, June 5th at Camarillo, California.  The company hopes to “have regular commercial service for passengers and cargo as soon as 2021.” Using a Cessna 337 Skymaster was a canny move for the young firm, giving them ample weight-carrying ability to have a petrol engine in the nose and a dual-Emrax motor system behind the cabin and between the twin tail booms. The push-pull arrangement adds to engine-out safety with no assymetrical thrust as on a conventional light twin.  The Skymaster’s six-passenger cabin will enable profitable flights for charter work.  A standard 337 has an empty weight of 2,655 pounds and a payload of 1,745 pounds for a gross weight of 4,400 pounds. With four to six …

Equator P2 Flies Out of Ground Effect

Dean Sigler Batteries, Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Following a decade of development, Tomas Broedreskift’s Equator P2 Excursion prototype made its first flights out of ground effect, a significant step in flight testing. It flew in ground effect just above the runway on March 29, 2018.  This helped verify the center of gravity and enabled further tests under audit by the Norwegian Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), which gave its release for full test at the end of February.  In a brief email, Brodreskift told your editor, “After 8 years in development it was about time!” Two flights on March 29 and March 31, 2019 gave the team the assurance that all systems are “go” for further testing.  Everything, according to test pilot Eskil Amdal, was more than acceptable.  He is one of the most experienced test pilots in Norway, flying everything from WWII aircraft to his current mount, an F-35.  Flights took place at at Eggemoen Technology Park in Norway.. A serial hybrid, the Equator takes its power from a water-cooled …

Pipistrel, Honeywell Sign MOU

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Aircraft Components, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

The fun part of writing this blog is receiving news of hopeful aspirations and plans for a thriving future. Taja Boscarol, one of the founders of Pipistrel, shared such news this week. “It is my greatest pleasure and honor to announce that Pipistrel and Honeywell signed an MOU(Memo of Understanding) regarding collaboration on aircraft technologies for urban air mobility.” The Slovenian/American joint venture headlined its press release, “PIPISTREL AND HONEYWELL COLLABORATE ON AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGIES FOR URBAN AIR MOBILITY,” with the multi-faceted secondary headline, “Pipistrel and Honeywell combine aerospace expertise to address the technical, regulatory and business challenges of the emerging on-demand mobility market.”  eVTOL News lists over 140 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft on its web site.  Early in the 20th century, there were thousands of automobile manufacturers.  Such high-end products with their attendant development and manufacturing costs can’t be maintained by all the competitors, especially when market winners survive by growing in efficiency and productivity to make desirable …

Sailplane-Like Boeing Cruises on SUGAR

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Boeing has sustained a decade-long program to develop aircraft that reduce the use of fossil fuels or eliminate it altogether.  SUGAR (Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research) program designers have resorted to configurations that were a part of early high-performance sailplanes, those craft that soar on the energy of the very air around them. Sailplane designers know that longer wings give a lower span loading: the weight of the airplane and its payload is spread over a greater span.  On powered craft, low span loadings give greater rate of climb for the same power and enable throttling back to get the same cruise speeds.  Longer spans usually lead to heavier structures, though.  Spars end up weighing more and wings are subject to twisting in the wind.  To get around these problems, early designers used highly-tapered wings to move the bending moment on the wings inward, and strut bracing to reduce the cantilevered segment of the wing.  Hawley Bowlus used these methods …

Bell Nexus Debuts at CES 2019

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) had over 4,500 exhibitors, and one major aircraft company showing off its Bell Nexus sky taxi and its Autonomous Pod Transport (APT).  Fast Company reported that three major trends emerged: the thousands of devices that link to “virtual assistants” such as Alexa (28,000 apps), the introduction of a slew of Apple products, and the changes in transportation new technology will bring. Fast Company noted, “This long-term–and wildly futuristic–strategizing was on full display at CES. For starters, the Uber partner Bell showed off a second-stage concept of its flying car that both companies swear they will begin testing in 2020. (This has been on the docket for a while.) A full-scale model on the CES floor promised to fly five people at speeds reaching 150 mph.  Of course, it didn’t actually fly, but it’s being taken seriously for an important reason: Bell is an established aircraft developer that makes the propulsion technology behind the V-22 Osprey (the crazy-expensive military helicopter …

N Is For Noise, D is for Deliveries*

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A July, 2017 article in New Scientist reported that a small test group found “the noise of drones more annoying than that of ground vehicles.”  This has implications for enterprises such as Amazon and Google that hope to perform home deliveries of various goods, including food.  Almost as a refrain, the Wall Street Journal reported in December, 2018 that, “Wing – the  drone delivery company that spun out from Google — was annoying residents in the Australian town where it tests its services.”  Folks in Bonython, the down-under township where the company had set up shop, “Likened the sounds of the original delivery drones to a “chain saw gone ballistic.”  This caused some to spend less time outdoors, and dogs evidenced signs of “a considerable amount of anxiety.” The Business Insider added that a Wing spokesperson “confirmed… that it has begun testing a quieter drone that ‘blends in’ with nearby sounds.”  The unidentified spokesperson explained, “We’ve developed and are testing a new …

Norway and the Netherlands Electrifying Aviation

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Two European states that will benefit from the electrification of short-range airline flights are becoming strong proponents of new technology.  Norwegian Would The Guardian headlined its article on greener airlines this way: “Norway aims for all short-haul flights to be 100% electric by 2040.”   A subheadline explained, “It already has more electric cars than any other country in the world and also has shipping projects underway.”  That’s in terms of market share, with electric and hybrid vehicles representing more than half of new car registrations in 2017.  Avinor, the public operation of Norway’s airports, says short-haul airliners should be entirely electric by 2040, cementing the Nordic nation’s role as a pioneer in the field of electric transport.  Chief executive Dag Falk-Petersen promised Norway, “Aims to be the first in the world” to make the switch to electric air transport. He added, “We think that all flights lasting up to 1.5 hours can be flown by aircraft that are entirely electric,” …