Two automotive teams on epic journeys we’ve reported on previously are making great progress toward their goals. The Vislab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge is in Samara, Russia, a few hundred miles north of the Kazakhstan border. An ostensibly driverless tour from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China is planned to arrive at its destination on October 10, 2010, 21 days before the end of the World Expo being held there. On the way, two pairs of vehicles are testing Vislab’s goal “to move goods between two continents with non-polluting vehicles powered by green energy and with virtually no human intervention.” As noted in this blog, the Italian team is running two pairs of Piaggio vans on a route emulating but not duplicating Marco Polo’s 13th century trek to China and back. Polo spent much of the first part of the voyage on a ship and docked near Iraq’s western borders before setting off inland. After 24 years on the road, he returned to …
Buckeyes Bullet to Record
Engineering and design students with Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research heated the Bonneville Salt Flats August 23, 2010 with a speed record for electric vehicles on the famed white wasteland – 307.66 miles per hour for the average of two one-mile runs. The Buckeye Bullet BBV2.5 flew through the flying mile at 320 mph under the experienced hand of Roger Schroer, a professional race driver who has worked with the University team for the last six years. The Buckeyes await certification of their record by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the worldwide motor sports governing body. The team comprises graduate and undergraduate students in multiple engineering disciplines. Center Director Giorgio Rizzoni acts as team advisor, undergraduate David Cooke is team leader, graduate mechanical engineer Gary Bork heads up the grads, Rob Ewing is mechanical leader, and graduate electrical engineer R. J. Kromer is the electrical leader. Graphic design major Kelly Hartnett keeps the world updated on team activities through …
Green Flight Challenge: Elektra One Progress
Dipl. Ing. Calin Gologan, President of PC-Aero, showed the completed version of Elektra One, a Green Flight Challenge contender, at Friedrichshafen’s Expo for Sustainable Mobility in June. Over the last two years, PC-Aero has designed a series of light, electric-powered aircraft. As Gologan explains, “Using the existent technology it is possible to fly with a one- and a two-seat aircraft without CO2-emission for more than 3 hours, without noise and for lower operation costs in comparison with classic aircrafts. This is the future of leisure aviation as a bridge to the next step: electric transportation.” Just two months after its debut at Aero 2010, Elektra One graced the halls again as part of “The Electric Avenue”. Surrounded by electric vehicles of every description, the single seater showed off its nicely faired landing gear, and hinted at the powerplant under its smooth cowling – an HPD 13.5 kilowatt (18.4 horsepower) motor normally associated with hang gliders and powered parachutes. PC-Aero notes 21 …
Ultralight and Electric – The Red Tail Hawk
Many of us dream of retiring and pursuing the dreams that sustained us during our careers. One man has done that with the kind of work ethic that makes retirement highly productive. He maintains two web sites; a Yahoo group dedicated to his latest homebuilt electric sailplane, and a more inclusive overview of his many aeronautical projects. Jerry Booker took early retirement from the architectural technology profession, and having grown up on a farm, “enjoyed ‘green’ living, with a lot of physical activity, and now [lives] in the farm country in central Illinois.” Designing and building even a simple airplane is a task that requires the willingness to learn and explore new ideas, and if that craft includes an electric powerplant, a willingness to experiment at a fairly high level. Jerry reports, “I always had an interest in research, design, and development, and am mostly self-educated from reading and trying things. “In addition to Alex Strojnik, I got a lot from the …
HALE Another: AeroVironment’s Global Observer
We reported last month on Boeing’s High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle, the Phantom Eye. Now AeroVironment’s similar HALE, the Global Observer, is undergoing initial flight testing at NASA Dryden Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California. Meant to provide “persistent” communications and remote sensing capabiliies for military or civilian applications, the less-than-10,000-pound Global Observer can carry 400-pound payloads to 65,000 feet and stay there for a week on its four electric motors, which resemble larger versions of the Astro-Flight motors used on Helios, Pathfinder, and other AeroVironment craft. Missions, according to the firm, include “low cost, rapidly deployable telecommunications infrastructure and GPS augmentation; hurricane and storm tracking, weather monitoring, wildfire detection, and sustained support for relief operations; and aerial imaging and mapping for commercial and environmental monitoring, agriculture crop management and harvesting optimization.” The airplane’s cruising altitude and “field of view” place it between smaller, tactical reconnaissance craft and satellites. It’s 175-foot wingspan, large cargo pod …
Power From the People
GENeco, a United Kingdom waste treatment company, announced its new green alternative to fossil fuels – the methane from waste treatment plants. Proposed over 40 years ago in the U. S., the energy source was ignored as an automotive (and potential aircraft fuel) for four decades because it was too “dirty” a fuel (insert obligatory joke here), although GENeco has been able to remove CO2 that would otherwise be problematical in an economical enough way to allow its use in vehicles. The company’s web site explains their expertise in such matters. “Part of the Wessex Water group of companies, GENeco has the resources, experience, skills and financial strength to offer secure, long-term commitment to businesses, organisations and the agricultural sector looking to become more environmentally friendly. “Generating around 35GWh of electricity a year, with the exception of landfill gas, we are producing more electricity than all the other forms of renewable energy combined in the region we operate, which includes Dorset and the former …
Smart Skies Down Under
Mr Richard R. Glassock holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with honors, and supervises undegraduate unmanned aerial vehicle projects at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) with the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA). He currently leads the “Smart Skies” unmanned aerial systems flight-testing program and is working on his Master’s Thesis. At the Twenty-Fourth Bristol International Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems Conference, in 2009, Bristol United Kingdom he presented a detailed paper on a parallel hybrid system using off the shelf model aircraft components he and his associates designed and tested. “Multimodal Hybrid Powerplant for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Robotics” shows the use of an OS 10 cc model airplane engine, combined with a Plettenberg 220 motor. His group found that climb rates of the combined powerplants were improved 56 percent over that for an internal-combustion engine only, and that endurance increased by 13 percent, based on the combined efficiencies of the hybrid components. Richard is a regular reader of …
LEAP Awards at WSEA
At the World Symposium on Electric Aircraft, AirVenture’s overview of electric aircraft progress, the morning session ended with the presentation of the LEAP (Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize) awards. Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh and founder of the Creative Solutions Alliance, announced the winners at the July 30 session. According to the Alliance’s press release, “LEAP is a suite of prizes that recognizes significant contributions to the development of practical electric flight, and stimulates meaningful advances in the fledgling electric aircraft industry. LEAP awarded a total of $25,000 in prize money, an amount equal to the Orteig prize that was won by Charles Lindbergh for his 1927 solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. In doing so, Charles Lindbergh changed the world’s perspective about the potential for aviation and opened the door for today’s $300 billion dollar aviation industry.” Three prizes were awarded. The award for “Best Electric Aircraft: Awarded for the best example of a practical electric aircraft …
Hanging on The Prop, Backwards
Burt Rutan, as part of his keynote address at the World Symposium on Electric Aircraft, “’mused about electric-powered aerobatic aircraft whose reversible motors would enable them to deliver symmetric or asymmetric thrust as called for by each maneuver,’” according to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s news release by James Wynbrandt. “’Imagine an Oshkosh air show where [the planes] dive straight toward the ground and stop,’” Rutan said. ‘They’re not fantasy anymore. The RC [radio-controlled model] indoor guys are doing this. “’It’s happening. It’s easy to do.’” Video proof of Rutan’s assertion can be found on YouTube. The Electric Tournament of Champions, held at Toledo, Ohio April 3rd and 4th, 2009 drew competitors from all over the world. As shown in the video, R. J. Gritter showed off his variable-pitch (obviously capable of reverse thrust) “foamie” type model, named for the light-weight closed-cell foam from which these little craft are made. Note also the pivoting wings. Gritter is not the first to accomplish reverse …
Yuneec E430’s to Top Everest
According to FlightGlobal.com, two Yuneec International E430’s will attempt to fly in formation over Mt. Everest next January or February. This will be the first flight over the 29,029ft (8,848m) peak by electric aircraft, and will highlight, “The viability of electric-powered flight and Yuneec’s designs,” according to FlightGlobal, the web-based outlet for Flight International magazine. Their report includes this video interview with Pierre Hallet, the French distributor for Yuneec, and one of the pilots slated for the expedition. According to Hallet , the only modification to the aircraft will be the addition of a DUC variable-pitch propeller, presumably to provide optimized climb in the thin atmosphere. Aircraft will be shipped to Katmandu, where they will be assembled, then flown to a base camp about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the base of the mountain. Once weather conditions are favorable, the two E430’s will climb over the mountain and glide back to base camp.