Sustainable Skies in San Francisco – the Sequel

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

Getting personal once more, this entry highlights my adventures at the 2018 Sustainable Aviation Symposium as reported in the first person. The Sustainable Aviation Symposium for 2018 began its Saturday session with J. Philip Barnes, the Senior Technical Fellow at Pelican Aero Group, who expanded an idea he has been developing for several years – that of flying on energy generated and stored by a self-launching sailplane’s motion through the air.  With both a single-seat Coulomb Keeper and larger Faraday First model to analyze, Phil turns to seminal works by Glauert and MacCready to create a motor/generator coupled with a propulsion fan that doubles as a propeller and windmill.  Clever use of switching in the control circuitry should enable high-efficiency prolonged flight exceeding what would be possible with batteries alone.  Phil’s website is well worth checking out, providing historical and engineering insights at every opportunity. Boris Popov, founder of BRS (Ballistic Recovery Systems) has saved 380 lives (and counting) with …

13th Annual Personal Aircraft Design Academy Meeting Honors Popov

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

At the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture, a week of grand aviation events comes to a close with the annual Personal Aircraft Design Academy meeting.  Each year, an individual or group who has contributed significantly to the progress of personal aviation receives a trophy in recognition of that contribution.  Your editor could not be there this year, but CAFE President Brien Seeley officiated and shares this report. “The Personal Aircraft Design Academy (PADA) convened its 13th annual meeting on July 24 at 7:30 p. m. in the EAA Vette Theatre. After nominations and voting by members of the PADA Board, the group presented the perpetual PADA Trophy to Boris Popov for his career-long achievements in bringing forth ballistic recovery systems for aircraft. Boris was also awarded the PADA medal as he accepted the trophy and proceeded to deliver an inspiring speech about the history and successes of vehicle parachute systems.  He recounted that 326 lives have been saved by the BRS system thus …