Waking up in the middle of the David Letterman show this morning, your editor stumbled into the computer room to check on the Solar Impulse trip to Morocco. From the live Google Earth map shown on their web site, and the inset live video of Bertrand Piccard, all was well, and the giant solar-powered craft was sailing over surprisingly irregular terrain. It just wasn’t the expected flat, featureless desert seen in countless films. Solar Impulse was probably still flying over Spain at that time, having taken off at 3:22 a. m. local time (5:22 coordinated universal time or Greenwich time) from Madrid’s Barajas Airport. At 7:30 a. m. local time (Pacific Daylight Time – 4:30 UTC), Bertrand Piccard was crossing the narrow strip of sea between the Spain and Morocco and making his way along the Moroccan coastline, chatting happily with his daughter back in Payerne, Switzerland, the airplane’s home base. Solar Impulse attained 8,229 meters (27,000 feet) during the trip, and …
Hope or Patience? Ennui or Exuberance?
EV-World.com first stymied this editor’s hopes, and then gave cause to hope at an elevated level. Two articles in jousting juxtaposition explored this dichotomy. Anthony Ingram took a jaundiced view of present battery progress and the hopes for a more energy-dense future. He noted that, “There’s kind of a running joke within the electric car world that the next generation of batteries is just a decade away. And the next time you ask, it’s still a decade away. Even a decade later. “Well, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the next generation of usable battery technology is – wait for it – around ten years away.” He explains that today’s EVs are running on ten-year-old technology, and that the most promising current new technologies could power the next decade’s cars. Keying from remarks by Tony Hancock of the Department of Energy’s Kentucky-Argonne Battery Manufacturing Research and Development Center, Ingram explains that, “current lithium-ion chemistry still has room for improvement, …
Imperfect Carbon as Good as Pricy Platinum
The expense of platinum catalysts has been an impediment to the development of fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Scientists at Stanford University may have found an inexpensive, higher-performance alternative in “unzipped” carbon nanotubes that show an imperfect face to the world. Findings published in the May 27 online version of the journal Nature Nanotechnology quote chemistry professor Hongjie Dai, co-author of the paper. “Platinum is very expensive and thus impractical for large-scale commercialization. Developing a low-cost alternative has been a major research goal for several decades.” With platinum ranging from almost $800 to over $2,200 an ounce, carbon nanotubes, with their conductivity and inexpensive production costs provide a desirable combination of performance and price. Nanotubes are rolled-up sheets of graphene, a one-atom thick layer of pure carbon – 10,000 times narrower than a human hair. Dai’s team nested two or three nanotubes, each smaller than the next layer outward, an amazing feat considering the submicroscopic size of the tubes. To …
An Atlantic Crossing With Mid-Air Recharging
Chip Yates, already famous for his high-speed motorcycle racing with eight world records, four national records, and a world record for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb among others, wants to make aviation history with a flight across the Atlantic, emulating Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 crossing – but this time with an electric airplane. Even more exciting, the voyage is planned to include inflight recharging of the airplane. For starters, Yates’ team, composed of aerospace engineers and energy specialists, has purchased a Rutan Long-EZ, removed its gas-burning powerplant, and is converting the airplane to electric power, which they might adapt from Yates’ racing motorcycle, claimed to be the world’s most powerful road-racing electric superbike. That unit puts out 258 horsepower and 400 foot-pounds of torque. In its new configuration, the EZ will become the Long-ESA for the Electric Speed and Altitude records it will attempt later in 2012. Just notching the records for electric flight is just the beginning for Chip’s …
Dropping Into Madrid
Solar Impulse HB-SIA, flown by project CEO Andre Borschberg, crossed the border into Spain after flying over mountainous terrain for over 17 hours on the first leg of its Payerne, Madrid, Rabat trip. During the flight, the prototype crossed from Switzerland into France at an altitude of 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) The project’s blog explains, “The Solar Impulse airplane took-off this morning at 08h24AM (UTC+2) from Payerne aerodrome in Switzerland following the previously scheduled flight plan over the Pyrenees. The aircraft flew over the Massif Central towards the city of Toulouse (France), flying over the Pyrenees mountain range at an altitude of 7’833 meters (25,699 feet) and finally arriving in Spain, landing on Runway 33L.” The airplane managed the 1,191 kilometer (738 mile) voyage at an average ground speed of 89 kilometers per hour (55 mph) and reached a peak altitude of 8,500 meters (27,888 feet). (Patrick McLaughlin is a close friend who spoke at the sixth annual Electric Aircraft …
The High Road to Morocco
The Solar Impulse project announced the takeoff of HB-SIA from its Swiss home field at Payerne with André Borschberg at the controls this morning. The 08:24AM (UTC +2) departure will lead to a full day’s flight, with Solar Impulse landing at Madrid Barajas Airport around 01:00AM (UTC+2) for a minimum 3-day technical stopover. Weather permitting, the first possible departure for Rabat, with Bertrand Piccard at the controls, will be Monday 28 May. This will be his first major outing in the airplane, and a significant one, since he will cross the Mediterranean to Morocco, the first intercontinental flight by a solar-powered aircraft. The video from Mountain Radio included interviews with both Borschberg and Piccard, whose tastes in music are explored. As usual, the team has put together an excellent range of ways to follow the flight. There’s even an app for that. Solar Impulse explains, “During the Crossing Frontiers Flights, each flight can be tracked live on www.solarimpulse.com as well …
Kickstart Kicks John McGinnis to Announce New Goals
A few minutes ago, John McGinnis, designer and ongoing builder of Synergy, released the following announcement. It is based on the 385 supporters who have contributed 81 percent of the initial $65,000 goal to complete the first phase of construction on this envelope-exploding aircraft. “We are thrilled to report that Synergy is on track to become the first crowdfunded aircraft of the Internet era. Thank you to all contributors, large and small. You have really gotten behind us and the power of your enthusiasm is both contagious and humbling. “What does this mean? Well, unless something goes terribly wrong (and it could, we’re not funded yet) it looks like there is support for us to complete this phase of our construction, getting the landing gear on and the engine powered up. “That’s not quite the same as finished. If we don’t raise our minimum, we get nothing, so deciding where our project goal should be was a big deal. Now …
Nano to Macro – Piezoelectrics Have Power
Two far-flung enterprises are using piezoelectric devices to generate answers to widely disparate questions. The first set of questions is intensely personal. “Can a heart implanted micro robot operate permanently? “Can cell phones and tiny robots implanted in the heart operate permanently without having their batteries charged? These provocative questions highlight a web page from KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which focuses on the Institute’s work with piezoelectric devices. Such devices can tranform vibrations, pressure, and other mechanical forces into an electric current. Older “hi-fi” systems used piezoelectric cartridges in their LP-playing tone arms to transduce the vibrations from a needle touching the record’s grooves into signals to the system’s amplifier. Dr. Zhong Lin Wang explains, “Our FAND (Flexible and Nano-bio-energy Device Lab) group has developed new forms of highly efficient flexible nanogenerator technology using freely bendable piezoelectric ceramic thin film nano-materials and nanocomposite materials that can convert the tiny movements of human body (such as …
Noise or Emissions – We Can Do Without Both
GreenAirOnline, a web report on mainly airline attempts to promote environmentally-friendly flying, has two not-unrelated stories in today’s edition. Noise abatement is a major issue for British airports, especially those in the southeast, according to the first story. Kate Jennings, Head of Aviation Policy Implementation at the Department for Transport, says the government recognizes that it is a “particularly contentious issue.” Even though noise has been reduced for individual flights, flight frequency has increased and measured noise footprints don’t always match the perceived noise levels that drew public complaints, Ms. Jennings reported. “That’s why at an ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organizaton) and political level we need to keep the pressure on to identify ways of further reducing noise and there needs to be an intelligent debate on the trade-offs between emissions and noise,” she told the recent UK Airport Operators Association (AOA) Environment Conference in London. British airports have been practicing several approaches to cutting both emissions and noise, including …
Algae Biofuels Producers, NASA Combine Forces
OriginOil and Algasol are two algae–to-oil producers who’ve joined forces to cultivate and harvest micro algae that can perhaps “reach a tipping point and compete with petroleum.” Algasol’s process perhaps most closely resembles that shown by NASA scientist Dr. Johnathan Trent, which he presented at the fourth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium. His OMEGA, “Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae” relies on water motion and sunlight to churn treated wastewater that otherwise would be literally dumped into the ocean into a refineable algae. Waste CO2 can also be used to generate algae, another “two-fer” that would clean up the environment while providing a literally green fuel source. In their joint press release, the two firms explain, “Algasol’s floating bags or photobioreactors (PBRs) can operate in the ocean or in salt water ponds on land. Because they float, Algasol believes their PBRs achieve optimal light exposure with outstanding productivity results and avoid the high temperature and excess salinity often encountered in solar …