Dr. Brien Seeley, founder and President of the CAFE Foundation, will speak on “The CAFE Green Flight Challenge Program,” at the Unmanned Aircraft Systems conference at San Diego, California, October 10 through 12, 2012. His talk fits well into the conference’s sub-title, “Opportunities, Needs and Challenges,” and will probably reflect the direction he’s been pointing to with recent CAFE presentations on aerial commuting and pocket airports. The Green Flight Challenge certainly showed that the nascent technology is capable of giving fast, short-range transport at a potentially economical price. The conference will focus on military uses of UAVs and how to integrate them with existing hardware and systems. Since many military-based unmanneds will be navigating our civilian skies in the near future, civilian pilots and air traffic control systems will be obliged to integrate their resources to allow safe passage through what could be skies crowded with autonomous craft. Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a bill that allows self-driving cars on California highways. …
Pipistrel,PADA, and “Gus” Raspet
Pipistel, the innovative Slovenian company that won the Green Flight Challenge with its G4 electric four-seater, continues to earn plaudits from the aviation industry. At this year’s AirVenture, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual gathering at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the company was honored with the Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award and original and pace-setting design work exemplified in Pipistrel products. The Exerimental Aircraft Association has awarded the “Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award” annually since 1960 “to a person who has made outstanding advancements in the field of light aircraft design and the Experimental Aircraft Association.” John Thorp, Lockheed engineer and designer, was the first recipient, with those following including Curtiss Pitts, Burt Rutan, Alan and Dale Klapmeier and Gordon Pratt. Taja Boscarol, in the company’s press release, notes that, “This year’s award being given to the Pipistrel Team is definitely proof that Pipistrel’s innovativeness is now fully recognized and appreciated even in the cradle of the aviation industry, the USA.” Michael Coates, …
Annual Personal Aircraft Design Academy Dinner and Presentation at AirVenture 2012
Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, and Program Chair for the Personal Aircraft Design Academy (PADA), announces that the group’s catered buffet “networking” dinner will be followed by a special meeting for top aircraft designers, enthusiasts and aero engineers as part of AirVenture 2012 at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. His announcement highlights the following: “The dinner will be at 6:15 p. m. on Friday July 27 at the Memorial Wall Tent near the Air Academy Lodge, with the PADA meeting following at 7:30 PM in the air-conditioned Vette Theatre inside the AirVenture Museum, a short walk from the tent. “This year, we’ve made it easy to register online in advance for the limited seating available. Please visit this site now to get signed up: “PADA Dinner Registration. “PADA history is available at PADA History. “Keynote speaker for PADA 2012 will be electrical engineer and aeronautical innovator Tine Tomazic, who will present the amazing story of the electric powered, 403 pMPG Pipistrel …
AVweb Talks to Dr. Seeley About EAS VI
The sixth annual Electric Electric Aircraft Symposium, CAFE’s premier event, got a lot of press attention this year, including lead story status from AOPA and acknowledgement from Engadget and AVweb. We’ll start with the one that’s most fun to listen to – a podcast from AVweb. Mary Grady of AVweb interviewed Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, about the just completed Electric Aircraft Symposium at Santa Rosa, California, which drew participants from at least eight countries and 10 multi-national corporations. With Federal Aviation Administration representation and a former Environmental Protection Agency head signed up to attend, the Symposium drew some high-level attention this year. Dr. Seeley was enthusiastic about the rapidly maturing technology and industry, with Tom Gunnarson from the FAA and Ronald Gremban of ForSites Corporation working toward standards and practices for electric aircraft. When asked about the thought that FAA rules for small electric aircraft might be five to 10 years out, Dr. Seeley noted the …
Vimeo Viewing of First Ever Electric Aircraft Charging Station
Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, points us toward a video his son Damon just posted to Vimeo. It depicts part of the 2011 Green Flight Challenge sponsored by Google, for which the Foundation played host. Dr. Seeley explains, “NASA’s Chief Technologist Joe Parrish refers to the Wright Brothers in the video as Sonoma County Supervisor Mike McGuire and I cut the hose to a gasoline dispenser nozzle.” The symbolic hose is then proudly replaced by a very real electric charging station for airplanes, capable of providing a continuous 9,600 Watts to each of 12 aircraft and used to charge the Pipistrel G-4, e-Genius and Embry-Riddle’s hybrid Stemme during the contest. The video features great in-flight footage of the two pure-electric competitors from the GFC, and makes one wish for the day when private flight is quiet, pollution-free, and inexpensive. The G-4, according to Pipistrel CEO Ivo Boscarol, made the two 200-mile flights in the contest on about …
Fastest Electric Vehicle Design at EAS VI
Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, has made the following announcement: “The Chief designer of the F-22 Raptor has prepared another spectacular design: The World’s Fastest Electric Vehicle. This new aircraft design will be presented along with the other outstanding talks at next week’s CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium, April 27, 28 in Santa Rosa, California (Sonoma Wine Country). This symposium, dedicated to the burgeoning new domain of emission-free flight, now has representatives from Boeing, Bosch, IBM, Honda, Nortrhop-Grumman, Japan Air Lines, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Aerovironment, FAA, Cummins, Cessna, Lycoming and many other companies enrolled to participate.” The high-speed electric may be a response to Ivo Boscarol’s pledge to put up $100,000 of his Pipistrel G-4 winnings at last year’s Green Flight Challenge for the first supersonic electric aircraft. Program Details can be found here. There is still time to pre-register online here.
Stemme Motorglider Makes Automated Landing
Stemme AG, manufacturer of highly sophisticated motorgliders, has made their aerial platforms mounts for a huge array of surveillance and sensor systems. Their latest announcement, though, shows the company is thinking next generation thoughts about flying in automated skies. According to the Technical University of Berlin, a co-partner with the University of Stuttgart on the project, “the STEMME s15 landed precisely and safely at 5: 44 P.m. local time.” The flight took place March 22, 2012. Using a flight controller and laser altimeter, the system allows “optional piloting” in its operation. It also provides a high degree of flexibility, letting the airplane land at any airport, even those without instrument landing systems. LAPAZ, their automated flight control system, uses electric actuators and on-board computers to make automated flight a reality. It even opens up a new category of aircraft, the Optional Piloted Vehicle, for missions into hostile environments or situations. The team’s announcement gave some details of the project. “At …
Pipistrel’s Flight Through Wine Country
Brien Seeley forwards a video of Pipistrel’s historic, Collier Trophy nominated electric powered flight. He notes, “It applies its performance data file and a weather map overlay to annotate scenes of the visual beauty of the Sonoma Wine Country,” a feature that will also delight visitors to Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport when they attend the electric aircraft flight demonstrations that are part of this year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium. The Team will present details of their aircraft and its achievement at the 6th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium on April 27, 2012 in Santa Rosa, for which registration can be obtained online. The video will remind one of the weather overlays Dr. Jack Langelaan created for his autonomous soaring exercises, and which were also shown to be helpful in general aviation flight planning and execution.
Pneumatically Pumped Up
Robert J. Englar is Principal Research Engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Georgia Tech Research Institute in the Aerospace & Acoustics Technology Branch. Responsible for research project direction and development of advanced technologies in aerodynamics, he added a different type of discipline to those presented at the fifth Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium last April in Santa Rosa, California. His research combines attempts to achieve low noise, high lift and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities while applying pneumatic power to the equation. Not to be confused with inflatable rafts, pneumatic, in this case, refers to the careful routing of high-pressure airstreams over very different airfoil and high-lift device surfaces, and has led to measured coefficients of lift in the 8.5 to 9.0 range. By comparison, a conventional STOL craft may generate a CL of 3.3 (Zenith Air 801) and the Custer Channel Wing claimed, with its propeller blast channeled through a semi-circular wing (hence the name), an infinite CL. …
The Sixth Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium
The CAFE Foundation will hold its sixth Electric Aircraft Symposium on April 27 and 28, 2012 at the Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, California and at the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport, site of the Green Flight Challenge. Not only will there be a stellar lineup of speakers, but flying demonstrations of electric and hybrid aircraft, a first at any EAS. Jack Langelaan, team leader for the GFC-winning Electro Taurus G4 team, and Tine Tomazic from Pipistrel will share insights on the design and flight of the 403.5 epmpg aircraft. David Calley, Chief Technical Officer for Motor Excellence, will describe ideal low-RPM motors for electric aircraft, and Mark Moore from NASA’s Langley Research Center will share breakthroughs in distributed propulsion. And that’s all before the first coffee break! Typical of the packed schedules for all EAS’s, the rest of the presentations will fill your brain and lighten your spirit. Gene Sheehan will discuss his Quickie-like Feuling Green Flight Challenger …