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 …

The Villiger Traveler – A Stunning Resemblance

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

The Villiger Traveler is a Swiss aircraft that looks remarkably like the SmartFlyer SF-1 featured in our last posting.  Despite the similar styling, the Traveler has a unique history of its own, and a few stable mates that reflect its careful engineering. The Traveler 230 First introduced in 2017, the Traveler was derived from the TR230, a Cessna-like craft designed with assistance from Calin Cologan and others.  The conventional aircraft, based on other works from this group, was probably Swiss precise in its manufacture. But a different approach and less conventional look were on their way. Same Name, Different Approach Possibly taking the same approach as that taken by the SmartFlyer group, the Villiger team designed a similar appearing airplane, but with two initial variants that gave them some flexibility in choosing components. Carrying on e-Genius’ Platform By 2019, the Villiger craft was probably set in plastic, so to speak.  Such designs have to be “dialed in” early, and because …

DLR’s EXACT Future Dreams

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DLR, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) predicts practical ways to achieve dreams of carbon neutral flight.  EXACT (Exploration of Electric Aircraft Concepts and Technologies Projects is not an exact depiction of aircraft on the drawing board, but a conceptual program for creating the craft and infrastructure of future flight. The EXACT project is developing a concept for climate-friendly flying in commercial aviation and takes into account the complete life cycle of an aircraft, its components and its fuel.  DLR looks beyond the aircraft designs themselves to include sustainable energy sources, powerplant types, and even flight route planning. Goals and Approaches The plan cites the following goals and approaches: “New DLR aviation strategy charts the research path towards emission-free flying. “The energy requirements of upcoming aircraft must be reduced to at least half by 2050. “The climate-neutral aviation of the future requires highly efficient aircraft configurations and an intelligent mix of alternative drive concepts. “Climate-optimized flight …

Ampaire Acquired Two Firms – Expands Possibilities

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Anpaire, a leader in hybrid aviation, announced it has just acquired two firms.   Magpie Aviation, a somewhat audacious startup that has created a remarkable way of towing battery-powered electric airplanes hitherto unattainable distances.  Ampaire also acquired Talyn Air, a startup offering an eVTOL (electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) solution to extending range.  Both firms take unusual approaches to the problem. It’s not like Ampaire doesn’t put enough mileage on its own hybrid aircraft – 25,000 at last count.  Ampaire has flown its Cessna 337 push-pull twins in Hawaii, Scotland, and England and converted Cessna Caravans to Ampaire’s hybrid drive. Adding range up to a thousand miles at a time, Magpie hooks up to an otherwise range-limited aircraft and can tag team the craft on multiple hookups. On another front, Ampaire has also brought Talyn Air into the fold, using a lifting craft to take a cruise machine to launch altitude. Add to the new airframe types Ampaire has included …

Airbus and Perlan Check out Hydrogen

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Airbus, through its partnership with the Perlan Project, is investigating how to clean vapor trails from the high-flown paths traversed by airliners.  Through its pair of Blue Condor jet-powered sailplanes, Airbus and Perlan are working toward a contrail-measuring mission in 2024. Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, has been a rarity in the aviation world, other than in well-publicized events involving gas-fueled conflagrations.  (Whether the H2 carrying the Hindenburg aloft or the fabric skin covering the great ship’s frame caused the fire at Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937 is still somewhat controversial.)  Regardless, the disaster brought about a deep mistrust of hydrogen that persists to this day.  Airbus, along with the Perlan Project, looks forward to exploiting H2’s advantages while overcoming its undeserved stigma and surprising issues. Perlan’s Greater Mission The Perlan Project has achieved an enviable string of record flights culminating in the 2018 altitude record of 76,114 feet.  Carrying CubeSats filled with science experiments developed by …

Electra EL-2 Goldfinch First Flight

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

Electra.aero plans on lofting nine people into the sky in a little regional airliner.  As a first step, the firm just flew its EL-2 Goldfinch demonstrator from the Manassas, Virginia Regional Airport (KHEF).  As Flying magazine pointed out, the bright yellow aircraft, “pays homage to its namesake’s golden hue.” Although it’s designed as a “blown lift” aircraft, levitating on deflected airflow under its large flaps, the EL-2 made its first takeoffs as a conventional airplane, scooting along the runway until it reached flying speed.  Its November 11 takeoff was apparently on battery power only, with its November 19 second trip assisted by a (possibly Safran) turbogenerator.  Electra claims it to be the “world’s first blown lift aircraft using distributed electric propulsion and a hybrid-electric propulsion system.”  The eight motors appear to be Safran 45- or 50-kilowatt (60- or 67-horsepower) models.  Both flights were piloted by Cody Allee, chief technology officer of ABSI Aerospace & Defense and a former U.S. Marine …

Green Hydrogen from Scrap Metal and Water?

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Can we make green hydrogen (or other energy sources) from scrap we otherwise throw away?  One of the frequently announced “breakthroughs” recurrently finding its way to our attention is that scrap food or farm waste has found its way to becoming aviation fuel, for instance.  United and Alaska Airlines have flown aircraft powered by biofuels produced from food waste by suppliers at SEATAC airport in Seattle, Washington. Hydrogen is undergoing a growth spurt.  The U. S. Department of Energy explains, “Hydrogen is an energy carrier that can be used to store, move, and deliver energy produced from other sources.”  Green hydrogen seems to be an answer to many demands.  It comes from splitting water, and if produced through clean means, is a carbon neutral to carbon negative product. Stainless Steel Powder and Water Dr. Guy Ben Hamu, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Sami Shamoon College of Engineering, explains the process uses H2 trapping, something usually related to …

Air New Zealand Plans for Zero Emissions

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Air New Zealand has a five-part plan for reducing and even eliminating aviation emissions with some well-defined approaches and goals.  The airline hopes to achieve net zero by 2050, with demonstrable steps toward that starting now. Five Key Elements ANZ will rely on five key elements in its quest for zero-emission flight.  They are already involved in producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), partnering with makers of zero emission aircraft technologies, renewing their fleet, reducing carbon emissions through improved flight and ground operations, and removing carbon using best known techniques.  You can read the full sustainability report here. Producing SAF Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), explains Air New Zealand, “Is made from a variety of sustainable resources other than crude oil, such as used cooking oils, landfill waste, forestry waste, carbon captured from the air and green hydrogen. It has the potential to dramatically reduce lifecycle carbon emissions by up to 80 percent or more compared with traditional jet fuel.” Since New …

Electrifly-In Bern 2022 – The Year of the Hybrid

Dean Sigler Batteries, Biofuels, Diesel Powerplants, Electric Aircraft Materials, Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, GFC, Hybrid Aircraft, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Electrifly-In Bern 2022 is a new location after five years at Grenchen, Switzerland.  The Electrifly-In moved about 25 miles down the road to Bern’s bigger airport.  Started by the designers of the SmartFlyer, an innovative hybrid touring craft, the event was originally called the SmartFlyer Challenge. Organizers have the serious intent of saving aviation from the “shame” that has come to accompany flight itself.  “Aviation is pilloried by the public. Flying is seen as the main problem of the climate catastrophe and everyone who books a flight should have a guilty conscience and is labeled as a climate sinner. The social and political pressure to phase out combustion technology is steadily increasing worldwide. So the question is no longer if, but when electrically powered aircraft will become the norm.”  This year, the fly-in offered the public several defenses against sin and shame. Beginning with the original namesake, the Smartflyer SFX1 was on display in the hangar, its carbon-fiber blackness showing …

Koenigsegg’sTorque-Dense Electric Motor and Hybrid Drive Train

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Koenigsegg (Cone-igs-egg), a Swedish car maker that enjoys shocking with its sticker prices, is going hybrid with a new, torque-dense electric motor and hybrid drive train.  The Swedish car maker is known for its ultra-exclusive, ultra-high-performance vehicles, which have even undone the Stig, anonymous race driver on the BBC Series Top Gear. David Koenigsegg’s Gemera manages as much as 250 mph on a two-liter, three-cylinder engine, augmented by a set of three electric motors.  Describing him as, “an inveterate tinkerer” who squeezes “extraordinary amounts of power out of internal combustion engines,” Clean Technica explains the “breakthrough products that could transform the world of electric cars.” One “breakthrough” would seem to be a package of a three-cylinder engine coupled to some powerful electric components.  The “Tiny Friendly Giant (TFG) engine pumps out 600 horsepower (450 kilowatts) and weighs only 70 kilograms (154 pounds).  It has no camshafts, relying instead on solenoid-actuated, artificial-intelligence-controlled valves to let the fuel and air in and …