Pipistel, the innovative Slovenian company that won the Green Flight Challenge with its G4 electric four-seater, continues to earn plaudits from the aviation industry. At this year’s AirVenture, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual gathering at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the company was honored with the Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award and original and pace-setting design work exemplified in Pipistrel products. The Exerimental Aircraft Association has awarded the “Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award” annually since 1960 “to a person who has made outstanding advancements in the field of light aircraft design and the Experimental Aircraft Association.” John Thorp, Lockheed engineer and designer, was the first recipient, with those following including Curtiss Pitts, Burt Rutan, Alan and Dale Klapmeier and Gordon Pratt. Taja Boscarol, in the company’s press release, notes that, “This year’s award being given to the Pipistrel Team is definitely proof that Pipistrel’s innovativeness is now fully recognized and appreciated even in the cradle of the aviation industry, the USA.” Michael Coates, …
Solar Impulse HB-SIA Returns Home, HB-SIB Under Construction
Solar Impulse crossed from Toulouse, France to Payerne, Switzerland on July 25, completing an epic intercontinental voyage for the giant solar-powered craft. Its itinerary consisted of a flight from the Solar Impulse home base in Payerne, Switzerland to Madrid, Spain, followed by a jump across the Strait of Gibraltar, for the first time linking Europe and Africa by solar flight. Because of its light wing loading, the airplane is subject to the vagaries of wind and turbulence as the ultralight aircraft it truly is, and was forced to turn back after battling the elements for half a day on its attempt to fly from Rabat, Morocco to Quarzazate, the site of the Moroccan solar agency’s huge desert solar generating site. A second try met with success, although punishing turbulence caused Andre Borschberg to wait for a night landing when the air was relatively cooler and calmer. Returning to Rabat, HB-SIA was subject to maintenance and inspections before its return flight to …
Fastest Electric Airplane Emergency Landing Yet
Chip Yates is used to going fast, having obtained a private pilots certificate in a mere two months, and test flying an electric Long-Eze conversion (Long-ESA) within two weeks of that, but he didn’t count on making the world’s fastest electric aircraft emergency landing during a record-breaking speed run at Inyokern, California’s desert airport on July 19. With only 58 hours in his log book, Chip managed to make the runway for a bumpy but great touchdown – a great landing being one following which you can reuse the airplane. We’ve reported that event already, but Chip just released a great video of the white-knuckle event. To help document his record 202.6 mph flight, Chip’s airplane was well instrumented, carried several cameras, and had a chase plane to provide eye-witness oversight. In the two months he and fabrication partner Chris Parker of CPR Fabrication converted a Long-Eze into the world’s most powerful electric airplane (258 horsepower – 58 more than Green …
Annual Personal Aircraft Design Academy Dinner and Presentation at AirVenture 2012
Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, and Program Chair for the Personal Aircraft Design Academy (PADA), announces that the group’s catered buffet “networking” dinner will be followed by a special meeting for top aircraft designers, enthusiasts and aero engineers as part of AirVenture 2012 at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. His announcement highlights the following: “The dinner will be at 6:15 p. m. on Friday July 27 at the Memorial Wall Tent near the Air Academy Lodge, with the PADA meeting following at 7:30 PM in the air-conditioned Vette Theatre inside the AirVenture Museum, a short walk from the tent. “This year, we’ve made it easy to register online in advance for the limited seating available. Please visit this site now to get signed up: “PADA Dinner Registration. “PADA history is available at PADA History. “Keynote speaker for PADA 2012 will be electrical engineer and aeronautical innovator Tine Tomazic, who will present the amazing story of the electric powered, 403 pMPG Pipistrel …
Replacing Gasoline with Aluminum?
Several researchers in commercial, government, and academic realms are studying the possibility of using aluminum as an energy source for vehicles and even grid power. In the commercial realm, Alchemy Research in Israel makes the following rather startling claims. “Alydro is a new technology developed by Alchemy Research for producing clean energy from a reaction of aluminum and water at elevated temperatures. “Alydro generates energy in the form of hydrogen and heat. The only by-product is fully recyclable aluminum oxide. “Alydro is competitive with gasoline on energy density and affordability. It is superior to gasoline on sustainability, environmental characteristics and safety.” Alchemy Research claims that aluminum has 2.5 times the energy density of gasoline, about 84 mega Joules per liter or 23.3 kilowatt hours. Aluminum has about 8.6 kilowatt hours per kilogram, considerably more energy dense than lithium batteries, which range from 120 to 190 Watt-hours per kilogram. Storage takes less space than its equivalent in gasoline and the material is perfectly …
EMG-5 Electric Motorglider
This isn’t Brian Carpenter’s first time at the small airplane rodeo. He’s built at least a dozen aircraft, designed several from scratch, and even entertained the hosts of TV’s Mythbusters series with a series of rides in his team’s ultralights. His latest creation at Tangent Aircraft is a sleek Part 103 ultralight that seems to break or bend the rules on several fronts, presenting a twin-pivoting-motored, Fowler-flapped, retractable-gear craft that would seem to be too complex to fall into legal 103 status – or even into something the average novice private pilot would be allowed to fly. The 36-foot span and 105-square-foot wing would seem too fast to meet stall limits. Carpenter explained his design philosophy to your editor a few days ago, and he said the greatest challenge of meeting part 103 regulations was attaining the stall speed requirement with the small wing area. Normal, unflapped ultralights need about 140 square feet to meet the 27.6 mph stall speed. …
Chip Yates Becomes World’s Fastest Person in an Electric Airplane
On July 19 at Inyokern Airport in California, Chip Yates and his Long-ESA electric airplane set an unofficial world’s speed record for battery-powered flight, hitting 202.6 mph just before a dead cell in the battery pack forced an emergency landing. It was the airplane’s second test flight. Following a day of taxi tests, Chip, who has been taking flying lessons and recently achieved his Private Pilot’s license, set out to see how fast his 258-horsepower mount could go. He has become the first person to break the 200 mph barrier for electric aircraft in level flight, beating the previous record by Hugues Duval at last year’s Paris Air Show in an Electravia-powered Cri-Cri. Duval managed to hit 175 mph on his run over the main runway at Le Bourget Airport. The same UQM motor in the Rutan-derived airplane powered his road-racing motorcycle last year, enabling him to hit over 200 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats and to set a …
Increasing biofuel Production 20 Times
What if, instead of using corn to make ethanol, we were to use corn stover, the waste stalks, leaves and non-edible portions of the corn plant? It’s not a new or novel idea, but Michigan State University researchers have taken a new direction in extracting energy from it. The East Lansing research team has managed to produce 20 times more energy than through the use of existing methods by using microbes to “produce biofuel and hydrogen, all while consuming agricultural wastes.” The method combines biological, chemical and electrical reactions to generate fuel and energy. Gemma Regurera, an MSU microbiologist,” has developed bioelectrochemical systems known as microbial electrolysis cells, or MECs, using bacteria to break down and ferment agricultural waste into ethanol. Reguera’s platform is unique because it employs a second bacterium, which, when added to the mix, removes all the waste fermentation byproducts or nonethanol materials while generating electricity,” according to the University. Normally, corn stover processed in MECs can …
It’s Official, It’s a Volocopter Video
Thomas Senkel of the German firm e-volo sends this video, the official promotional video for these multi-rotor vertical takeoff and landing aircraft at AirVenture 2012. Better yet, the team will have at least their prototype machine on hand and many displays of future developments. Note the modular structure of these vehicles at the end of the video. Innovation Hangar Alpha will house the VC2 Volocopter, successor to the VC1 and improved in many ways, including three pilates balls for bouncing your landing on. The VC1 was the first “purely electrically powered, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft and flew last October. At least the pilot is under the spinning rotors on this version. Seriously, the designs represent a clever and elegant design concept, which embodies ease of control and simplicity of operation. The software which enables smooth flight and nuanced control has to be a marvel of programming. The VC2 is not only a more sophisticated design, but lighter and …
Electric Lazair Progress
During a visit to the International Vintage Sailplane Meet at Harris Hill, New York, your editor was fortunate to be a guest of Dale and Carmen Kramer, who graciously showed their home, once that of Glenn Curtis, “The Father of Naval Aviation.” Now the Hammondsport cottage (as in Glenn Hammond Curtis), which overlooks the lake where Curtis flew his early amphibians, is home to a high-tech cottage industry, with Dale creating battery monitoring systems, “brain boxes”, and other elements of his electrical power system for ultralight aircraft. He designs the schematic and printed circuit boards for the system, sends them off to a PCB manufacturer and hand mounts very small components on the finished circuit boards, a process that would normally use expensive “pick and place” machinery and wave soldering. His low-tech version of wave soldering takes place in a toaster oven. A table on the covered and shaded front porch overlooks the lake and holds stacks of water-jet cut …