KillaJoule is the world’s fastest electric motorcycle with a top speed of 241 mph (388 km/h) so far. About 80 percent of this sleek bullet is the design and work product of co-owner and driver Eva Håkansson, who has graced the stage at two Electric Aircraft Symposiums, the last appearance with her husband and crew chief, Bill Dube’. Their web site explains, “KillaJoule is really eco-activism in disguise. The only purpose of this 19 foot, 400 horsepower, sleek, sexy motorcycle is to show that eco-friendly doesn’t mean slow and boring.” Over the Labor Day weekend, Eva lowered her petite frame (she’s about five feet tall) into the cockpit of her speedy sidecar to break her old world record and set a new mark 25 miles per hour faster than anyone else has gone before in or on a motorcycle. The sidecar definition comes from the outrigger wheel and platform that thankfully, doesn’t require a rider for these speed attempts. The …
EAS VIII: Making Small Airplanes Ride Smoothly
Dr. C. P. (Case) van Dam of the University of California at Davis provided some counter-intuitive pointers on making small airplanes ride more smoothly to participants at the eighth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium in late April. His solutions for ride quality enhancement in small airplanes are an essential ingredient in making electric Sky Taxis a plausible reality. Because at least initially many electric aircraft are constrained to long wing spans and light wing loadings, they are subject to “perturbations of significant magnitude to be unacceptable.” These disruptions of the intended altitude and direction of the aircraft can be more upsetting to passengers than to the aircraft itself, but van Dam had several suggestions to alleviate the vertical and lateral accelerations that passengers perceive as bumpy air. He had explained the possible need for a gust alleviation system in his 2008 Electric Aircraft Symposium talk, something he felt even then would be necessary, “In order for these vehicles to achieve acceptable …