“Records, Records, Records!” heads the news on the Institut for Flugzeugbau (IFB) web site this morning. The sub-head reads, “Experienced hands plus a high-performance airplane plus one week equals seven world records.” Admitting to fuzzy math, the writer still draws a clear line to the seven records.
e-Genius, the smallest Airbus, at the ILA Berlin Air Show, surrounded by its larger siblings
Klaus and e-Genius spent the third week of July in Seeres – La Bâtie, France where they achieved seven FAI (Fédération Aéronautique International) World Records in the Category of Electric Airplanes.
According to the IFB, “In two flights (July 18th and 19th) he attained:
– Speed on a 100 km round trip : 178.1 kilometers per hour (96 knots, or 110.4 mph)
– Speed on a 500 km round trip : 93.03 km/h (50 kt – 57.5 mph)
– Distance of 504 km (312 miles)
– Absolute altitude of 6,376 m MSL (20,918 feet)
– Time to climb to 6,000 m (20,000ft) : 1:53 min (an average of about 177 feet per minute)
– Altitude maintained for at least 90 seconds : 6350m (20,833ft)
– Speed over 15 km on a straight line: 229.7 km/h (124 kt – 142.6 mph)”
The records, all in the C-1a, C-1b, and C-1e categories, can be seen on the FAI web site.
The video was taken during a 180 kilometer (111.6 mile) flight in which e-Genius used only 25 kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to 166.57 mpg or 333.13 passenger miles per gallon – noteworthy considering the climbing necessary for the flight. e-Genius achieved 375.7 ppmg at an average speed of 107.3 mph during the Green Flight Challenge in September, 2011, flying in a much narrower altitude range and at steady speeds. The recent numbers certainly show its practicality as a versatile light aircraft.
Congratulations to Klaus and the entire e-Genius team.
NOTE: We received the following correction from Ingmar Geiß at the IFB. “The seven records were set in three flights. Christoph (the Go-Pro wielding passenger in the video) participated in just one of them. He is a friend of Klaus – we don’t know his surname.”