A “New” Electric Canard – Thirty Years Later

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

Thirty years ago, Claude Chudznik developed a beautiful little canard that flew on a 25-horsepower two-stroke engine.  The elegantly tiny craft performed well enough on its noisy (“almost unbearable” according to the team’s blog) engine that the team of Chudzik, Frédéric Laude, Rémy Audebert, Eric Favereau, Patrick Quiertant and Gilles Aubin decided to take it out of mothballs, repower it with an Electravia GMPE-E 205 50-hp system (batteries, controller and motor), and take to the skies again.   They are close to that goal, having recently reassembled the wings and canard to the fuselage, fitted batteries, motor and an EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrument System) and Electravia E-Screen ES-TX26RSD motor and battery monitoring screen.  The simple, mini-glass-cockpit fits well within the confines of the small craft. This high-performance instrumentation complement the potential of this electrified and resurrected airplane, now with a motor twice its original power.  It flew at more than 200 kilometers per hour (124 mph) on its two-stroker (the …