PhoEnix GFC Update

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Jim Lee’s informative and beautifully illustrated blog features “PhoEnix with the capital E in the middle,” the motorglider he will fly in the CAFE Green Flight Challenge in July.  Electrically powered with a Krall 44 motor, it has a pointy nose and retractable gear to make it more slippery than the already high-performance Phoenix without the capital E and with a mere Rotax behind the propeller. According to Lee, the 14.5 meter (47.57 feet) modified Schempp-Hirth Discus wing is raised above the low position of the gas-powered version to make room for the electrically-retracted gear, which hides in what was originally a luggage compartment – another change from the standard Phoenix. The wing is configured to win the GFC, as is the rest of the airplane.  Lee, the U. S. distributor for Phoenix Air, says in his blog, that “the PhoEnix is purpose built for a race. A race that offers big bucks for the winner, but with a bar set so …