An Unplanned Hiatus

Dean Sigler Uncategorized 1 Comment

Apopologies for missing a few weeks of electric aviation reporting.  Your editor’s Internet service provider and some home-grown electric difficulties colluded to prevent our outreach.  All should return to normal shortly once we get some formatting issues resolved.  Thanks for your patience.

Oregon’s Jump into Emergency Services

Dean Sigler Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Jump to the Rescue The State of Oregon might be ready to Jump into serving remote areas with a startling type of drop-in emergency vehicle.  Jump Aero’s Pulse eight-motor biplane configuration could whisk emergency medical technicians on a flight to patients who could otherwise wait for a half-hour or more before help could arrive. Joshua Kupietzky, writing in Simple Flying, cites five characteristics of the craft that merit attention.  “Quick arrival times… Serving a special niche… Battery-powered life-saving impact… Vertical takeoff… Easy to use and maintain.”  These features describe many eVTOLs (electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft, but the Pulse allows landing in the space that would otherwise be taken up by an ambulance or small fire vehicle. Carrying a trained professional EMT or firefighter to the scene along with an array of emergency gear, Pulse can have said professional giving medical care or putting out fires within minutes of setting down. Because it’s a tail-sitter, the pilot enters …

A Short Holding Pattern

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To All: Your editor thought he’d be back in command in just a few days following a recent minor surgery.  Things do not always go as planned, but the blog will be back in two days.  We’re working on the economics of electric flight from many manufacturers, and delving into SPACs, short-selling, and other financial vagaries that bedevil the industry.  Believe it or not, but not all transactions are transparent and not all projects go according to plan.  You may have noticed that the financial market and aircraft in general, like winds aloft, can be variable and not always light.    

Influit Going Commercial

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

Influit Energy, a spinoff from Illinois Institute of Technology, is going commercial in a big way.  They claim to have developed a “rechargeable electrofuel – a non-flammable, fast-refueling liquid flow battery that already carries 23 percent more energy than lithium batteries, at half the cost.”  Reporting by Loz Blain in New Atlas.com notes the company plans “to commercialize its ultra-high density liquid batteries.” The firm’s “nanoelectrofuel,” a motor-oil consistency liquid, would refuel a vehicle with a special four-point nozzle.  The process would allow users to be on the road or in the air in a few minutes, rather than a few hours as with batteries.  Like a battery, the liquid comes with a positive and negative component – two liquids – an anolyte and a catholyte instead of a more solid anode and cathode.  The system requires four tanks – one each for incoming positive and negative liquids and one each for spent liquids that return to the supply source …

Cranfield: Hub of Electric Aviation

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Cranfield, England and its local university are hubs for electric aircraft development.  Dr. Guy Gratton is test flying The Light Aircraft Company’s eKub on 48-Volt battery power, ZeroAvia is crafting a Dornier 228 to run on hydrogen, and now Cranfied Aerospace Solutions (CAeS) is readying a Britten-Norman Islander for H2-powered flight in 2023. The Islander Living up to its name, Britten-Norman’s Islander seems to be busy worldwide island hopping.  The twin-engine plane ever makes the world’s shortest scheduled flights, including this between Juist to Norden across the Wadden See.  The 74-second flight is less than the time spent taxiing at the beginning and end of the hop. Designed and developed in the 1960s, 750 Islanders of the 1,280 built are in service with many small airlines and over 30 militaries.  Now, other enterprises are banding together with Britten-Norman and Cranfield Aerospace Solutions (CAeS) to bring hydrogen flight to the Isles of Scilly, a popular English vacation destination. Three companies signed …

Doubling Down with Ascendance

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

Ascendance Flight Technologies, a French firm developing an electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, has doubled down on its original, smaller airplane.  Originally a four-seat, hybrid-powered machine with three lift fans, Atea has retained the name, but grown considerably. Holey Wings Atea now has eight lift fans and two horizontal propellers arranged in a push-pull configuration.  It can carry its five passenger in a “Skyview cabin” for 400 kilometers (248 miles)  Powered by its modular “Sterna” hybrid-electric propulsion system, the craft will hit as yet unspecified speeds, but within a two-hour range, that will probably be about 124 mph. An expansion of their original design, Atea comes from a group of former Airbus e-Fan engineers and technicians.  The web site explains, “Ascendance was cofounded in 2018 by Jean-Christophe Lambert, Benoit Ferran, Clément Dinel and Thibault Baldivia, who together have 26 years combined experience and expertise working on hybrid and electrical aircrafts: from Airbus on the E-FAN all-electric aircraft …

Ampaire Flies in the UK

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

Having completed a series of successful island-hopping flights in Hawaii, and in Scotland, Ampaire is now in Exeter, England taking part in a government-backed program, “Aimed at moving the UK towards green aviation.”  Test Pilot Eliot Seguin has moved from his Mojave, California base to take part in the endeavor, joined by fellow test pilot Justin Gillen. Drawing a Crowd A large contingent of dignitaries attended the inaugural takeoff of Ampaire’s electric EEL, their modified Cessna 337 Skymaster.  These included Baron Martin Callanan, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for Business, Energy and Corporate Responsibility at the Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy. He shared a realistic appraisal of the new technology.  “Nobody is pretending we will be flying over the Atlantic any time soon but for short hops between two regional airports this is absolutely ideal.” Susan Ying,  Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships and recently seen on the PBS program “The Great Electric Airplane Race,” said …

Landing in the Baobab Trees with eHang

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

eHang, expanding its horizons with its two-passenger EH216 autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs), has announced a partnership with Italian architecture firm Giancarlo Zema Design Group (GZDG).  GZDG’s eco-sustainable, Baobab tree-mimicking vertiport will act as a landing zone for eHang’s electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) craft. Basing its design on the Baobab tree, native to Madagascar, Africa, and Australia, GZDG’s structure will fit into urban and rural environments equally well.  The 30-meter (98.4-feet) tower, built of laminated wood and steel emulating the shape of the “Tree of Life,” the vertiport will be topped with a multi-purpose landing deck.  The structure will incorporate a waiting room, café, a 200-square-meter (2,153-square-foot) panoramic restaurant and connecting lift.  Non-slip photovoltaic panels will generate over 300 kilowatts of electric power per day. GZDG’s vertiport is a green design made of sustainable construction materials, “and can generate energy to recharge the EH216 passenger-grade AAVs.” According to the partner’s joint press release, “Vertiports will play a significant …

DLR’s Novel Configurations

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, Hybrid Aircraft, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Researchers from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) conducting research into the potential of new types of design have crafted novel configurations for future flight.  The DRL and BDLI (German Aerospace Industries Association or Bundesverband der Deutschen Luft- und Raumfahrtindustrie)  have published a white paper: “Zero Emission Aviation – Emissionsfreies Fliegen” explicating these configurations. Surprisingly, one of their major findings is that “Electric flight enables lighter aircraft with smaller wings and distributed propulsion systems.”  Battery weight has caused MagniX and Ampaire to reduce the number of passengers or the cargo loads on conversions of existing airframes.  To counter those issues, “An EU research project is investigating the potential for new propulsion systems and aircraft concepts.”  Obviously, these new concepts will need to take advantage of advanced materials to lower airframe weight. Hybrids and Hydrogen Thousands of airliners parked in dry desert locations highlight how the COVID crisis has affected air travel.  Despite the ongoing interlude …

A Short Break for the Blog

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This is physically painful to write, but explains a need to reduce output for a few days or weeks.  A blood flow problem in my left hand keeps me awake at night and interferes with concentration during waking hours.  I need to slow down on blog output until a course of action can alleviate the pain. There are several items in queue and they will be released in due order.  Please be patient while I am being a patient and we’ll get the blog rolling again soon. This is a concern to me since I’ve been writing and editing the blog on a volunteer basis for the last 10-and-a-half years, with well over 1,300 entries.  We need to keep this effort alive since aviation, like all our industries, needs to achieve earth-saving cleanness. Thank you for being readers and participants in this great adventure.