Aerovelo, combining flight with velocipede (bicycle) propulsion provides plenty of exercise for its members on the high ground of Nevada and within the confines of Canadian gymnasiums. Between September 9 and 14 at Battle Mountain, Nevada this year, one of Aerovelo’s little airfoil shaped recumbent bicycles hit 77.68 mph, requiring a steady hand on the controls as well as incredibly strong quadriceps. As seen in the video at about 30 seconds, the Aerovelo team became a victim of the divergent directional stability common to these short-coupled vehicles. Bluenose parted company with the highway when nearing 100 km/hr (62 mph). Despite the horrendous tumble, rider Todd Reichert was unhurt and damage to the bike was mainly aesthetic. Todd went on to push Bluenose to a personal best speed, and made the University of Toronto group the second fastest human-powered team in history. Not content to set terrestrial records, the team spent September 23 and 24 with their Sikorsky Prize-winning human-powered helicopter, …
Rust and Sunshine Do Mix
Chemists at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, “Have achieved a series of breakthroughs in their efforts to develop an economical means of harnessing artificial photosynthesis by narrowing the voltage gap between the two crucial processes of oxidation and reduction, according to their paper, “Hematite-Based Water Splitting with Low Turn-on Voltage,” published this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie.” With your editor wishing he’d paid more attention in high-school chemistry, a quick search came up with simple definitions of oxidation and reduction. Oxidation is gain of oxygen. Reduction is loss of oxygen. When reduction and oxidation take place simultaneously, this is known as a redox reaction. These types of reactions take place in leaves producing plant energy from sunlight, and researchers are closing in on duplicating the reactions at a level which will make artificial photosynthesis an inexpensive, practical way to collect and store energy. So far, they’ve managed to produce 80 percent of the necessary voltage levels from their unique photoanodes and photocathodes. …
Graphene Works and Plays Well With Other Materials
Graphene is a highly promising material, one atom thick, strong enough to support an elephant standing on a pencil (only theoretically so far, with no actual demonstration having taken place), and electrically conductive. All these properties bode well for its use in batteries, solar cells, and even energy-storing structural members. One concern, however, has been in how graphene would interact with other materials in a practical setting. After all, so far most experiments with graphene have taken place at the atomic level, not a feasible working arrangement for the ham-handed and those without scanning electron microscopes in their garage workshops. Dr. Marc Gluba and Professor Dr. Norbert Nickel of the Helmholz Zentrum Berlin have, doubtless with some pretty intense tools available at their Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics, managed to coat a graphene film with a thin silicon film. According to the Institute, “They grew graphene on a thin copper sheet, next transferred it to a glass substrate, and finally coated …
Nudging the Speed Limit on Solar Power
Imagine driving through the desert with sundown approaching and the gas gauge teetering on empty. Wherever you are when the car runs out of gas or the clock reads 5:00 pm, you spend the night. Competitors in the Challenger Class of this year’s Bridgestone World Solar Challenge had to face this challenge to their comfort and peace of mind every evening for five days. Organizers of this international competition note, “It’s all about energy management! Based on the original notion that a 1000 Watt car would complete the journey in 50 hours, solar cars are allowed a nominal 5 kilowatt hours of stored energy, which is 10% of that theoretical figure. All other energy must come from the sun or be recovered from the kinetic energy of the vehicle. “The elite Challenger class is conducted in a single stage from Darwin to Adelaide. Once the teams have left Darwin they must travel as far as they can until 5 pm …
Taking Paper Batteries to the Next Level – Origami
Almost four years ago, this blog reported on Dr. Yi Cui’s “painted battery,” a method of coating even paper with carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, with the coated paper being able to store energy. Adding origami to the concept, Arizona State University researchers have folded a paper-based lithium-ion battery and managed to demonstrate a 14-fold increase in areal energy, or energy density per unit of area. This has serious implications for batteries that can be printed on roll paper and which have the requisite flexibility. More rigid batteries might crack under the strain, for instance, and achieve negative results from being folded. “’Foldable batteries may be useful for powering devices that have limited space on board,’ coauthor Candace Chan, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Arizona State University told Phys.org. “’Furthermore, with the development of foldable paper-based electronics demonstrated by other research groups recently, a battery that also can be folded may become important for integration of the …
Eva and Bill Do It Again
Eva Hakansson and Bill Dube’ are a husband-and-wife team with a deeply-felt need for speed. Bill races Killacycle, only recently unseated as the fastest electric drag racing motorcycle in the world, capable of seven-second, 170 mph quarter-mile times and speeds. His zero-to-60 time is under one second, somewhat like an aircraft carrier launch in terms of acceleration and the accompanying forces. Eva now holds the record for the world’s fastest electric sidecar motorcycle – beating her previous record on the Bonneville Salt Flats. A sidecar in this case is a two-wheeled, streamlined two-wheeler with an outrigger, but not a rider, as on a traditional sidecar. In-cockpit videos show the finesse with which Eva keeps Killajoule on the straight and narrow with the only indicators of speed being the course markers flicking by. Here you can enjoy their light-hearted banter about the very serious endeavors in which they invest their considerable intellects and skills. Eva builds the battery packs for their …
Chip Yates Breaks His Own Speed Record – Twice!
Your editor was on hand Saturday, October 5 at the California State Airshow at Mather Field, 20 miles east of Sacramento, mainly to see if Chip Yates could break his own electric aircraft speed record in his Long-ESA (Electric Speed and Altitude). He did break his previous Guinness Book of World Records speed of 202.6 miles per hour (and more recent speeds) on Saturday, but topped that on Sunday, with a quiet run of 216.9 mph. One Facebook fan wrote, “Incredible Plane… it’s a miracle.” The California Capital Airshow featured the usual crowd-pleasing noisy acts, with Chip being silently towed to runway’s end during fly-bys and aerobatics. His takeoff drew a hush from the crowd, straining to hear the soft whirring of the airplane’s Catto propeller. After a few runs in both directions over Mather’s main runway, he landed, taxied in, and took the airplane back to its display tent at the entrance to an aviation-related kid’s playhouse. He drew …
Toon Jacobs Lost in Crash
Toon Jacobs, recently congratulated in this blog for his creation of the fourth electric Cri-Cri, died in the crash of his aircraft on September 21. An experienced pilot and builder of several aircraft, Jacobs was reported to be conducting high-speed taxi tests when the accident occurred. He had converted the aircraft to electric power after having flown it for several years with internal combustion engines. We will report more on the incident when authorities release a final report. The CAFE Foundation extends our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Jacobs.
Lithium Gets a Good Wrap
Shadi Dayeh, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, has been designing new electrode architectures that could solve one of lithium batteries’ biggest problems. When lithium diffuses across the surface of a lithium-ion battery electrode, it causes the electrode to expand and contract depending on its charging or discharging. This eventually leads to cracking and ultimate disintegration of the anode or cathode – weakening and finally disabling the battery. Dayeh, working with colleagues at the University and Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, came up with nanowires that, “Block diffusion of lithium (Li) across their silicon surface and promote layer-by-layer axial lithiation of the nanowire’s germanium core.” Seeing possibilities beyond his current research, Dayeh says the work could lead to, “An effective way to tailor volume expansion of lithium ion battery electrodes which could potentially minimize their cracking, improve their durability, and perhaps influence how one could think about …
Designing Airplanes That Shape Shift to Fly Electrically
Dr. Brien Seeley has a dream, often repeated in this blog, of bringing pocket airparks into our neighborhoods. But the ideal of commuting by small two-seat aircraft and alleviating the crushing gridlock on our highways can only be realized with aircraft that are quiet, able to land and take off within a football field (much like ultralights), and yet cruise at up to 200 miles per hour (much like high-performance lightplanes). This amalgamation of Quicksilver and Lancair might seem unlikely, but Dan Raymer showed attendees at this year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium a possible solution to the dichotomy. Raymer, head of Conceptual Research Corporation and author of Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach, and Dan Raymer’s Simplified Aircraft Design for Homebuilders, is an internationally-recognized expert in RDS, or robust design strategies. RDS is defined as a systematic approach to finding optimum values of design factors which result in economical designs with low variability. As a recognized expert in this area, Raymer brought his …