Applied Materials, located in Sunnyvale, California, designs and makes equipment used in the manufacture of computer chips and other miniature electronic devices. Your editor worked there on assignment from his engineering firm for six months 15 years ago, documenting and verifying the equipment and control systems for their newest facility. Even then, miniature was wild understatement, with the company crafting machinery that could produce 0.18 µm lines in silicon chips. In the last two decades, line widths have shrunk to 0.03 µm, and the number of elements on chips has increased proportionally. This makes nano manufacturing a highly precise endeavor, and one which seems to defy credulity with lower costs for the ever-increasing number of chips being made. It’s this type of manufacturing expertise which makes possible the electronic life we lead today and one that relies increasingly on energy storage technology. The very things that make solid state computing possible could produce solid state batteries – an advantageous storage …
EAS VIII: Pipistrel’s Certifiable Hybrid Aircraft
No hype, Pipistrel’s Hypstair (hipster) was introduced by Tine Tomazic and Gregor Veble at this year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium. The attempt to bring the world’s first certified hybrid aircraft to market is a joint venture by Pipistrel with partners Siemens, the University of Maribor, the University of Pisa and MB Vision, a specialist in providing visual information. Siemens, as might be imagined, is providing an “ultra-light weight integrated drive train” for the aircraft,” Slovenia’s University of Maribor the HIL (hardware in the loop) evaluation for electric motor control testing and dynamic emulation of mechanical loads, Italy’s University of Pisa for evaluation of hybrid technology advantages, and MB Vision for development and integration of the aircraft’s interior and human machine interfaces that will make the information presented to the pilot ideally selected and intuitively perceived. Far removed from the days when homebuilt aircraft advocates drew a chalk outline of the steel tubing they would weld together on the garage floor, the …
Two Ultralights Promoting Electric Power
Several electric aircraft graced the flight lines and display tents at Oshkosh this year, while several that had flown in previous years stayed home. It shows a growing market segment – one apt to continue growing as batteries and components improve. The ultralight area showed the greatest number of new developments, with two aircraft showing how one might achieve battery-powered flight on a budget. Chip Erwin and the Aviad MG-12 Zigolo Several have noted the Aviad MG-12 “ Zigolo” (named after a small bird – not as some surmise, a “gigolo”) from Italy has the look of a Mike Sandlin Basic Ultralight Glider, although it also has elements of other early Part 103 machines and carries a complete aircraft kit price of $14,500. “Complete” includes a two-stroke, single cylinder Vittorazi Moster 185-cc engine. $1,500 adds a more advanced BRS ballistic recovery parachute, and another $1,500 nets a more complete, more quickly finished kit. Aviad claims the basic kit takes only …
EAS VIII: Joby Motors – on Simple and Complex Airframes
JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, Joby Motors, and related enterprises, has thought long and hard about the financial costs and lost productivity brought about by the daily automotive commute, a 1.6 hour per day ordeal for many in our urban centers. JoeBen and the Atlantic magazine agree that commuters squander 5.5 billion hours and 2.9 billion gallons of fuel annually, stuck in the fitful despair of slow or unmoving traffic, sharing only frustration and polluted air with their fellow motorists. JoeBen told attendees at the April Electric Aircraft Symposium that several years before, he had the seeming pipe dream of moving people by air in a single-seat, eight-motorm, vertical takeoff and landing, electric commuter aircraft that would take one 100 miles at 100 miles per hour for one dollar. The combination of Greg Cole’s Sparrowhawk and electric power focused too much on efficiency, according to JoeBen, and battery technology had not evolved to allow the practical outcome …
A Stable Lithium Anode – the “Holy Grail” of Battery Design
A Stanford University team of researchers, including Nobel Prize winner and former U. S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Yi Cui, long familiar to CAFE Blog readers, are using carbon nanospheres to coat lithium electrodes and help them resist expansion problems that formerly fractured them, and to keep elements in the battery’s reactive electrolytes from dissolving them. This approach has enabled the team to craft a pure lithium anode, with all the promise of high energy density that such an electrode holds. It’s also stable, a boon to longevity for these cells. As reported in the news release By Andrew Myers for the Stanford Engineering School, “’Of all the materials that one might use in an anode, lithium has the greatest potential. Some call it the Holy Grail,’ said Cui, a professor of Material Science and Engineering and leader of the research team. ‘It is very lightweight and it has the highest energy density. You get more power per …
PADA Lectures Highlight Innovation
The 2014 Personal Aircraft Design Academy (PADA) dinner and awards ceremony, the latter held in the Vette Theater at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Museum, highlighted design innovation and the possible commercial exploitation of new technology. Dr. Brien Seeley, Founder and President of the CAFE Foundation, hosted the evening and introduced your CAFE blog editor, who gave an overview of innovations in aircraft, avionics and powerplants he’d encountered on his daily hikes around Wittman Field. Dr. Seeley had the honor of presenting this year’s PADA trophy to John O’Leary, Vice President and General Manager of Airbus Americas Engineering (AAE), for the parent company’s development of the E-Fan, a twin-motored personal airplane that has been a highlight of the Paris and Farnborough air shows. With the flying displays behind it, the proof-of-concept machine will be the basis for two-seat (E-Fan 2.0) and four-seat (4.0) production variants that will bring smooth electric power to private flight. The two-seater, which can double as a …
Chip Yates’ Records Ratified by FAI
With recognition this week of five electric airplane records set by Chip Yates in flights last year, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) ratified performance numbers that top those of most single-engine high-performance gasoline-powered aircraft from established manufacturers, according to Yates. Your editor was on hand for the California Capital Airshow last October to see Chip take his Long-ESA to 500 meters (1,640 feet) from a standing start in only 62.58 seconds, 17 seconds faster than the previous record set by a fossil-fuel burner. The new records were really set last year between September and November and have just been ratified. They include an altitude of 4,481 meters (14,701 feet), a time to climb to 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) of five minutes, 32 seconds, and maintaining an altitude of 4,439 meters (14,564 feet) in horizontal flight. Chip achieved two speed records, reaching an average of 324.02 kilometers per hour (201 mph) in four passes over …
Surfing, Beaches and Sandy Batteries
According to scientific history, or perhaps legend, Archimedes had his Eureka moment when settling into his bathtub and seeing the water rise around him. He came up with his idea that a body’s mass displaced an equal amount of water, something that’s proved to be useful to know. Zachary Favors, a graduate student at the University of California at Riverside, had a similar moment of discovery when leaving the water after surfing near the beaches of San Clemente. According to the UCR press release, “he picked up some sand, took a close look at it and saw it was made up primarily of quartz, or silicon dioxide.” This led him to research locations in the United States where sand with high proportions of quartz existed. He found that the Cedar Creek Reservoir, east of Dallas, had sand with the qualities for which he was searching. Not only that, it was close to his boyhood home. What would lead him to …
EAS VIII: Across the Atlantic – Twice
Jean-Luc Soullier, holder of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale records for speed and altitude in an aircraft almost lighter than its pilot, has a greater series of ambitions to expand the range and speed of electric aircraft. Having stretched the limits of his Colomban MC-30e with two different motors, he’s looking at a longer-spanned, cleaner aircraft – the Windward Performance Duckhawk – as a means of getting higher speed and much longer range for a truly formidable (tres formidable) crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, not once, but twice. The airplane, with a Rotex motor on the nose and a specially-designed Arplast three-bladed propeller, will weigh a mere 105 kilograms (231 pounds) empty – without batteries. This is considerably less than the lightest Duckhawk in standard form, and shows that designer Greg Cole and Jean-Luc are making room for the added weight of long-range energy storage. Since the original airplane manages +7.5/-5 g’s, the lighter version will be restricted to a never-exceed velocity …
Batteries, Fuel Cells – or Something Else?
We’re coming to a parting of the ways in energy storage development for electric cars. Or we may be coming to a joining of technologies in new and previously unimagined ways. One side, led by Elon Musk and his Tesla Empire, promotes battery power and development. Yet, in Tesla’s home state of California, government and private investments in hydrogen vehicles is growing. Several Asian and European automakers are bringing out fuel cell powered vehicles in the face of low numbers of existing fueling stations. For all the promotion from either side, future “green” cars may become too expensive for private ownership, and various approaches to providing personal mobility may replace the traditional owner-driver model. Regardless of the outcomes or market shares, the technology will be applicable to personal aviation, although perhaps at a significant price. Battery-Powered Vehicles Lead – For Now According to EV World, “In the last year, global registrations of electric vehicles from the first three years of …