The beautiful blue Danube River of Strauss waltz fame, “…Rises in the Black Forest mountains of western Germany and flows for some 1,770 miles (2,850 kilometers) to its mouth on the Black Sea. Along its course, it passes through nine countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1811, Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger, a tailor in the city of Ulm near the headwaters of the second longest river in Europe, tried a novel idea – flying across the river on a nicely sewn-together hang glider. His splashdown marked the end of his aeronautical career, but made him famous and an unlikely harbinger of things to come. City fathers have announced, “In the spirit of Berblinger, and continuing his vision, the City of Ulm aims to promote innovative developments in general aviation that makes it possible to perform an environmentally sustainable long-distance flight. The long-distance objective is a competition flight following the course of the Danube along its whole length from source to mouth, as free of …
Small, Quick, and Getting Quicker
Frédéric Laude reports on the Flying Electron blog about his recent flight in the CC01e, a small canard aircraft designed by Claude Chudzik 30 years ago and pulled from storage to see if it could benefit from electric power. After a first, one-lap-around-the-field flight on March 23, Frédéric made a second flight of 15 minutes the following day. On landing, the team found that the batteries still had 60-percent of their full charge remaining. The airplane was stable and easy to fly, despite the presence of a big helicopter that seemed to insist on making the circuits with the petite canard. Problems with the in-line landing gear persisted, though, and the team spent the next several weeks modifying a nose gear that needed strengthening. They replaced a weak aluminum piece with titanium and made changes to the retraction mechanism. On the airplane’s third flight April 13, Frédéric noted, “We still had a little problem with that damn front,” referring to …
Vanadium Oxide/Lithium Batteries Offer Promise of High Power, Long Life
Henry Ford once brought a French metallurgist to Detroit, part of his plan to build cars with lighter, stronger steel. Vanadium, which the French used in their automobiles, offered him the chance to make the Model T lighter and stronger, and its part in the car’s alloyed steel gave the Model T the longevity which followed it through one of the longest production runs in history. Now battery researchers are looking at another quality of this mineral, its ability to form a superior cathode for batteries that “could supply both high energy density and significant power density. Combined with graphene, the wonder material du jour, vanadium oxide (VO2) could couple longevity echoing the Model T’s with charge and discharge rapidity similar to a supercapacitors. Materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan at Rice University created ribbons of vanadium oxide (VO2) thousands of times thinner than a sheet of paper, and combined those with atom-thick ribbons of graphene to form cathodes which were built …
Ionic Thrusters Offer Quiet Flight
Gizmag and Science Daily both covered a propulsion system that’s been with us for many decades, but which is just now seeing practical applications in space flight, and may be adapted to terrestrial winged vehicles. Your editor might have passed it over as overhyped, but the research came from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was published in The Proceeding of the Royal Academy – two good indicators of veracity. Jennifer Chu of MIT’s News Office explains, “When a current passes between two electrodes — one thinner than the other — it creates a wind in the air between. If enough voltage is applied, the resulting wind can produce a thrust without the help of motors or fuel.” That phrase, “If enough voltage is applied…” is a significant qualification. “Electrohydrodynamic thrust,” or “ionic wind” has been known since the 1960s, but limited to hobbyists and science fair projects. This video from China demonstrates the use of electric thrusters to …
Hydrogen as a Biofuel?
While we’ve written recently about “artificial leaves” that emulate the photosynthesis of their real counterparts, researchers have announced the discovery of a way to extract hydrogen from any plant, which “could help end our dependence on fossil fuels,” according to Y. H. Percival Zhang, associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). The school describes the process as a “breakthrough that has the potential to bring a low-cost, environmentally friendly fuel source to the world.” Zhang has been working on the problem for over seven years, and like many pioneers, has endured the critical appraisal of those not in tune with his aspirations. Esquire magazine in its November 2006 issue labeled Zhang’s early iteration of his idea to break down plant sugars to create cheap cellulosic ethanol and possibly even hydrogen as the “Crazy idea of the year: “sugar cars.” …
Nanowire Solar Cells Surprise and Excite
Long-time friend of the blog, and occasional corrector of the editor’s attempts at incorporating French into the proceedings, Colin Rush sent this link to a story about photonics in the Christian Science Monitor. “Wires 1/10,000th the diameter of a human hair can absorb more of the sun’s power than previously thought possible, a new study in Nature Photonics suggests,” writes David Unger, an energy correspondent for the Monitor. Unger’s lead paragraphs pushed your editor to look up several related terms and look further into the researchers’ own writing. “Although still years away from production, nanowire solar cells could push the conversion efficiency of the sun’s energy past the so-called Shockley-Queisser limit, which for decades has served as a fixed ceiling in solar energy research. “Such a breakthrough would be significant because the sun’s power is wildly abundant, but diffuse, and difficult to harvest. Even increasing the limit by a few percent would go a long way in making solar a more viable alternative to …
Czech Republic Flies Electric Sportplane
Sold in America as the SportStar Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), the Czech all-metal two-seater has a 28 foot, 5 inch wingspan, a maximum takeoff weight of 1,320 pounds typical of LSAs, and is normally powered by a Rotax four-cylinder engine. The latest version of this airplane, though, took flight in Kunovice, Czech Republic on March 28, powered by a Rotex motor. The SportStar EPOS (Electric POwered Small Aircraft) is derived from Evektor’s RTC, and carries a 50 kilowatt (67 horsepower) RE X90-7 motor made by Rotex Electric, which crafts everything from small model aircraft motors to (as shown on their web site) 40 kilowatt (53.6 hp) outrunner-appearing motors for electric vehicle use. The X90 designation would seem to indicate a larger, more powerful model, although that model is not shown on the Rotex web site. For possible interpolation, the displayed 40 kW model weighs only 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds), a healthy power-to-weight ratio. Their range of motors is slated for …
Panthera rollout and first engine start
On March 28, Pipistrel rolled out its prototype Panthera, a sleek four-seat cruiser destined to be the first production hybrid aircraft and eventually, Pipistrel’s second four-seat electric airplane. It is currently powered by a Lycoming IO-390, 210 horsepower engine. At Pipistrel’s factory in Ajdovscina, Slovenia a team of engineers and technicians fired up the engine for the first time and performed ground runs, “verifying design parameters and engine operation.” Pipistrel’s press release quotes Ivo Boscarol, their CEO: “It is very exciting to witness the tests and see the aeroplane come to life for the very first time. This is definitely a very important milestone in the development of Panthera. We look forward to the continuation of tests and the first flight soon!” With the Lycoming powerplant, Panthera can take four people 1,000 nautical miles (1,150 statute miles while cruising at 200 knots (230 mph) and burning 10 gallons of avgas per hour – 92 passenger miles per gallon. While not …
Phinergy: The 100X Battery?
Phinergy is an Israeli startup that promises high energy density energy storage systems, coupling zero emissions with light weight and great range in vehicle use. The company’s technology is similar to that of another Israeli firm, Alydro, reported here last year, and to the use of aluminum beverage can pull tabs, water and vinegar by a Spanish teacher and student demonstrated at the model car level. While Alydro does not seem to have shown a working model, Phinergy is demonstrating its technology in a small vehicle, sharing it all in an interview with Bloomberg Television. (Video updated June 28, 2017) Phinergy explains its unique technology. “Unlike conventional batteries that carry oxygen, these batteries freely breathe oxygen from the ambient air to release the energy contained in metals.” In aluminum’s case, that energy amounts to 8 kilowatt-hours per kilogram. Since the best lithium ion batteries might currently achieve 200 Watt-hours per kilogram, the aluminum battery could show 40 times the energy …
Ben Berry and His Solar-powered AirShips
Ben Berry’s father, Ben Berry, Sr., was a Tuskegee Airman, part of the second wave of African-American recruits who fought their way into the Army Air Corps in 1943. Instead of fighters, this group learned to fly the B-25 Mitchell bomber and was to launch from aircraft carriers for tactical attacks on Japan. Following the war, Ben’s father earned an aeronautical engineering degree, and applied his skills to solving a worrisome pitch stability problem on the XB-70. He designed the control systems for the X-15 project – which required a mix of aerodynamic controls and thrusters. Perhaps this proud background helped his son recently become Chief Technology Officer for the City of Portland, following a career as Chief Information Officer for the Oregon Department of Transportation, Regional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for a major hospital chain, and in senior leadership positions with the Royal Saudi Air Force, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabian International Airports, and Hughes Aircraft Company. In his spare …