VoltAero Unveils Production Cassio 330 at Paris Air Show

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

VoltAero has unveiled its production Cassio 330 hybrid electric aircraft at the Paris Air Show 2025, revealing a new look and revised, simplified technology.  Aerotime explains the craft is a result of VoltAero working with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) airworthiness certification agency. The original twin-boom configuration has been replaced with a T-tail, and its original parallel-hybrid power train with an internal combustion (thermal) engine inside the fuselage and two aft-fuselage-mounted Safran ENGINeUS smart electric motors on each side of the fuselage under the T-tail.  The internal combustion engine drives a generator that recharges the airplane’s onboard batteries in a serial hookup. Changing to a single fuselage eliminates the potential of damage to the twin booms if a propeller blade fails.  VoltAero explains, “The new configuration has a fully redundant architecture for operational safety. This begins with the two aft-fuselage-mounted Safran ENGINeUS smart electric motors, placing the Cassio 330 in the multi-engine aircraft category and opening its potential use in commercial …

Beta Does New York, and Ireland Too

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Aircraft Components, Electric Powerplants, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Beta Technologies, having flown its Alia from coast-to-coast and back, extebds its reach to New York City and even Shannon, Ireland. Beta Lands in New York Having completed an epic cross-country tour of the United States, a Beta Alia made a triumphant return to its Vermont home accompanied by two of its stable-mates.  Flying magazine pointed out some significant features of the long cross-country trip that preceded this homecoming.  “The trip was more than a public relations exercise, though. N916LF flew in VFR (Visual Flight Rules), IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), day, and night conditions through snowstorms and scorching heat—an impressive validation of its systems considering Beta registered the model with the FAA less than six months ago.” The First Electric Aircraft Landing at JFK A little more than two months after that return, Beta staged its next demonstration of Alia’s versatility. by performing the first all-electric aircraft landing at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City. Reuters reported, “Beta Technologies …

Pyka, a Potential Fire Supression Vehicle

Dean Sigler Autonomous Aircraft, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Pyka is an innovative company that’s been flying autonomously for over seven years.  Currently used in agricultural crop spraying and dusting operations, it seems to this editor that it could be a superb fire suppression vehicle.  Pyka’s youthful and exuberant crew would certainly be up to the task. Pyka’s latest product is a four-motor variant of their crop-spraying agricultural aircraft.  Holding 70 gallons of crop-fertilizing or bug-fighting liquid, the Cub-size craft can treat crops autonously, Because it’s autonomous with no pilot, Pyka is not risking anyone on board and can still fly after dark on its LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging)-based guidance. Interesting Engineering.com explains, “this technology utilizes pulsed lasers to accurately and constantly measure distances to a given target or area. LiDAR sensors are essentially light-based measurement and mapping tools that are incredibly useful in a variety of sectors.” Besides that, it has the coolest position lights of anything in the air. Pyka announced a partnership with Embraer, the Brazilian aircraft company, five …

CATL Gets Salty with Batteries

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) in China is promoting a different battery technology that promises lower costs and a greater life span than lithium cells.  This is another way to soften the demand for lithium, which often seems in short supply.  We reported on another approach, recycling used EV battery packs, last month.  This time, we’ll look at using sodium as an active ingredient in battery cells, starting with this three-minute primer on the difference between iithium and sodium batteries. Note that lithium batteries can use NMC (nickel, manganese, and cobalt) in their cathodes.  Like lithium, nickel and cobalt are hard to find, and cobalt often comes with the curse of being mined by children in slave conditions.  LFP, or lithium iron phosphate batteries have the advantage of having more readily available materials and being somewhat safer than lithium/NMC cells. CATL’s NAXTRA Battery CATL recently presented us with several offerings in new battery technology, but NAXTRA is probably of …

Whisper Aero – Ultralight to Heavy

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Whisper Aero, Mark Moore’s startup in Crossville, Tennessee, fields devices to move air, ranging from leaf blowers to fairly large airplanes.  The company recently showed a lineup of three aircraft, starting with a dual-motor powered flying wing hang glider to a nine-passenger silent medium-range carrier.  Each benefits from the quiet propulsion system developed by Moore and his team. The Whisper Lineup Whisper Aero plans a range of craft from a single-seat ultralight sailplane to a small lightplane-size cargo carrier to a nine-passenger transport.  All are capable of flying autonomously, and all will be powered by from two to 30 Whisper Aero eQ250 propulsors, each capable of 80 pounds of thrust.  In this video, Manfred Ruhmer, seven-time world Class 2 ultralight soaring champion among other honors, shows off his Aeriane Swift 3, taken aloft by an Eck-Geiger electric motor, and then elevated by its light weight and Manfred’s piloting skills.  It will be fascinating to see how The ship will perform …

A Good Friend, Richard Steeves, Passes

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Richard Steeves, a good and dear friend has passed, known for his achievements in medicine and among his friends for leading a long-term aviation club and even constructing a Coot Amphibian and electric ultralight airplane. Many will know him from his leadership of the Coot Builder’s Club, a group of enthusiasts who build and fly Molt Taylor’s design.  The organization publishes a newsletter that Richard edited for an astonishing 50 years.  He became great friends with Moulton (Molt) Taylor, the designer of the Coot, and wrote books and articles about the amphibian.  Now, with Richard’s passing, Andrew Wayne will take over running the organization and publishing the newsletter, which promotes the continued building and flying of this craft. In the early days of aircraft home-building, enthusiasts had to find plans for their intended craft, materials, and if possible, supportive local help.  This made building a Coot especially challenging.  Managing construction of a complex airplane with retractable landing gear, and mastering …

Sustainability at AeroExpo2025: Alphafrog

Dean Sigler Batteries, Biofuels, Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, Hybrid Aircraft, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

This year’s AeroExpo was particularly supportive of sustainability, with green balloons over “green” displays, a series of seminars on electric, hydrogen, and other clean skies aspirants, and flight demonstrations showing how far the industry and the Friedrichshafen exhibit have come. Alphafrog’s Illustrious Ancestor Alphafrog is a reintroduced and wildly updated ultralight from the 1970s, the Sirocco.  Its high wing, pusher engine, and forward cockpit made for a comfortable way to cruise at leisurely speeds while avoiding the rigors of more open aviating.  Even the original 1983 version, a wire-braced monoplane with three-axis control, had a polyester fiber-glass fuselage and fiber-glass leading edges on wings and tail surfaces.  Spars were “bidirectional stratified” composite construction.  (Burger-Burr’s Ultralight Aircraft of the World, 1983, a Foulis Aviation Book) The original, even with a partially-open cockpit, was capable of an around-the-world tour.  As Alphafrog relates, “Forty years ago, on September 29, 1984, Patrice Franceschi embarked on the first circumnavigation of the world with an ultralight …

Turning Over an Old Leaf: Reusing Lithium Batteries

Dean Sigler Batteries, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Turning over an old Leaf (of the species Nissan) and reusing its batteries may be a partial answer to the shortage of lithium.  The energetic metal is hard to get and often in short supply. In several entries to come, we’ll try to find some answers to questions about sourcing battery materials, how safe we can make batteries, and what future batteries may be like. When Weight is no Object When you don’t need to consider weight as part of your battery needs, as in ground-based energy storage units, why bother with lithium?  It’s potentially explosive, so find elements that are less so, although sometimes heavier.  Or, in some uses, use all the potential from existing sources that no longer live up to their specifications.  Electric cars need a change of battery packs, for instance, when their cells can manage only 80 percent or so of their original range. One solution in Lancaster, California, B2U uses old Nissan Leaf battery …

Beta Barnstorms America

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

Chris Stoner of eVTOL Insights reported that a Beta (Technologies) aircraft [completed] a “stunning” 3,064 nautical mile flight across America on March 4, the Beta Barnstorm.  Its headline-provoking journey gave many their first glimpse of a “mature” electric aviation product – one that could have great consequences in many areas. The Beta Alia CX300’s flight was charged along the eastern part of its route with an established network of charging and pilot rest stations built over the last several years by Beta.  Westward, the flight was assisted by a ground crew that brought Beta’s portable chargers to each destination airport.  Beta’s diverse and talented workforce is building a formidable network that will enhance electric aviation and its support structure through the next several decades. Nate Dubie and Noah Ranallo piloted the aircraft on a rotating basis while a small ground crew leapfrogged their efforts to provide backup and data capture. A Growing Network Beta’s network can be a precursor for …

A Survey For Green Aviation Lovers

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Jean-Baptiste Loiselet has a survey for those interested in green aviation to participate in.  He’s been riding the electric skies for three years without going anywhere near an electric plug.  He wants to know if others would like this kind of free flight.  Imagine flying for three hours at a time, quietly in an environmentally responsible way. GREEN AVIATION? SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR MICROLIGHT PILOTS AND AIRPLANES 🎤 We need your opinion. 🛫 I’ve been flying aboard the Sol.Ex., my solar glider for 3 years now. It has more than 250 hours of flight time to date and has never been plugged into a socket, while I take off all the time independently! 👫 I plan to develop the two-seater version of the Sol.Ex., to be able to share this fabulous adventure. And if the electric motor glider (solar or simply electric) is of obvious interest for gliding, I wonder if it would not also be interesting for all light aviation …