Sumon K. Sinha, Ph.D., P.E., and head of Sinhatech, had a part in the recent Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) record by Mr. Jean-Luc Soullier and recorded in a blog entry on March 10. Dr. Sinha wrote that, “CAFE Foundation’s Blog on March 10th, 2012 did not mention that the Colomban MC-30 aircraft had Sinhatech’s Deturbulator tape treatment on the wing upper surface as shown in the attached photograph. I would like to have this added to complete the description of the aircraft.” Sinhatech Deturbulator tape is an innocuous-looking strip applied along the span of a wing at a point which will trigger a response from the tape, which oscillates in the airflow, increasing lift and mitigating skin friction, according to company white papers. Dr. Sinha points out that, “This is the first independently recorded flight with wing Deturbulator treatment by FAI. It is also the first independently recorded flight with full-span Deturbulators on a powered aircraft.” The Sinhatech web site …
Another Plastics Recycler Turning Waste to Energy
A recent news item on National Public Radio caught this blogger’s ear, and showed the increasing number of companies attempting to control an otherwise uncontrollable growth of plastic waste. JBI, Inc., a startup company says, in promoting its new process, “Our patent pending Plastic2Oil® (P2O®) process is a commercially viable, proprietary process designed to provide immediate economic benefit for industry, communities and government organizations with waste plastic recycling challenges.” JBI’s process uses consumer waste plastic bags (the so-called “T-shirt” bags in which shoppers carry groceries to their cars, Number 5 automotive plastic, food containers and even plastic gas tanks and wine bags. These are fed onto a conveyer system in JBI’s Niagara Falls, New York plant, where they are loaded into a hopper that can accommodate 4,000 pounds per hour of waste plastic. The material flows through an apparatus, 120 feet long, 10 feet wide and 20 feet high, which first preheats and liquefies it. Semisolid materials are separated, and the …
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 …
Michelin Promotes Green Driving
Michelin, the French tire people, have made available an informative series of booklets involving green transportation. Let’s drive electric! Electric and Hybrid Vehicles Let’s drive bio! What biofuels for what uses tomorrow? More air! Reduce CO2 emissions in road transport Let’s drive smartly! Connected vehicles and Intelligent transport systems Let’s drive safely! The new stakes for road safety Despite the exclamation point-laden titles and a general predilection toward electric or biofuel technology, the books tend to be even-handed examinations of real world costs and limitations of all types of “green” vehicles. This editor recommends them for at least confronting issues that will be a continuing source of interest and concern for all of us.
Ken Goodrich, Stacking the Flight Deck for Safety
As we head toward this year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium, we look back again at last year’s outstanding array of speakers and presentations. Ken Goodrich, a senior research engineer for the Dynamic Systems and Controls Branch at NASA Langley Research Center, for the last several decades has been intent on creating improved human interfaces for airplane flight decks. His presentation at EAS V last April was based on long-term research (and now available in the CAFE library) and took an approach that challenged the conventional notions of responsibility. What if we were to share responsibility for our safety and that of our passengers with the airplane? What if we were to give over responsibility entirely to the craft itself? How do we interface with our aerial vehicle to ensure our safe passage and that of other aircraft around us? Starting with the training most of us take in learning to fly, we are taught stick and rudder skills, procedures and rules, according …
MIT Solar Findings Mirror Those of 13 Year Old’s Tree Research
A recent report from MIT, replete with computer algorithms and graduate level insights, made your editor dip back into a story about a young naturalist who saw a model in nature that could lead to more efficient solar arrays. Both produced works of genius and give us hope for some real breakthroughs in solar power deployment. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that, “Innovative 3-D designs from an MIT team can more than double the solar power generated from a given area,” and suggested that models of their new approach, “show power output ranging from double to more than 20 times that of fixed flat panels with the same base area.” Jeffrey Grossman, the Carl Richard Soderberg Career Development Associate Professor of Power Engineering at MIT and leader of the research team, reports in a paper published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science that the greatest improvements came in “locations far from the equator, in winter months and on cloudier …
Better Batteries: 3x Life, 30-Percent Cost
The CAFE blog’s recent news about graphene electrode developments by Argonne National Laboratory in applications by Envia, a startup battery company in Newark, California, led to an almost immediate follow-up by another startup, California Lithium Battery (CalBattery), but with a different form factor in mind. The company’s purpose can be divined from their mission statement. “Our mission is to become the leading United States-based developer and manufacturer of advanced, safe, high-performance Very large Format (VLF) lithium batteries for utility energy storage, EVs, and specialized industrial and military applications.” These batteries would be used in transportation and stationary power markets in North America, Europe and Asia. Asked to define VLF batteries, founder and CEO Phil Roberts said that their transportation batteries would come in 40 Amp-hour prismatic packaging, and those for the stationary power market would range up to 400 Amp-hours. This large format approach allows more active materials to be packed into a single package, increasing the total energy density …
A Not Totally New Idea After All
Delos Aerospace patented an electric landing gear system as early as 2007, according to their web site. Steven Sullivan, an alert blog reader, provided the following lead for your editor. Delos says, “This revolutionary technology is a total systems integration of a fully electric landing gear and maneuvering system wherein axial flux disk motor/generators replace the old friction disk technology providing increased braking and maneuvering capability to the aircraft wherein there are many engineering benefits to eliminating the heat generated within friction based braking systems.” Use of these brakes could reduce takeoff distances and increase range by reducing fuel weight otherwise required for takeoff and cruise. Power would come from an auxiliary power unit (APU), currently part of most large jet aircraft, that would generate electricity to allow the wheels to “drive” the airplane from its parking space to the runway for takeoff, or on landing to take the airplane down the taxiway to its concourse gate. These maneuvers alone …
Plastics Return to Oil, Landfills Dwindle
Several companies are engaged in mining America’s rich plastic mines, hidden in landfills throughout the land, to extract the oil that these plastics were made from in the first place. Since many plastics are deemed as “unrecyclable” these endeavors come as a welcome change in that they could help reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and diminish those landfills. Several environmental benefits might come from this. Since 93 percent of plastics are not recycled, this landfill mass grows quickly, and often puts a burden on local municipalities and industries. Much of this waste plastic is sent to China, where it is burned, generating a high degree of toxic and greenhouse gases such as methane. Agilyx, a start-up operation in Tigard, Oregon, offers one way to change these destructive patterns. Solid plastic waste, ground up and melted into a liquid, is condensed back into liquid form. The process then separates usable oil from other chemicals and contaminants. Chris Ulum, CEO of …
Lindbergh Foundation, LEAP Host Electric Aircraft Meetings During Sun ‘n Fun
The Lindbergh Foundation and the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize combine forces to present electric aviation events during the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In in late March, according to information from Erik Lindbergh and Yolanka Wulff. First, the International Workshop for Electric Aircraft Standardization will take place during the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In at Lakeland Florida on Wednesday, March 28. The workshop will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn and “brings together civil aviation authorities, researchers, and manufacturers/designers for discussions on standardizing technologies of this emerging aircraft category. The workshop concludes with our second official Electric Aircraft Development Alliance (EADA) meeting.” The Lindbergh organizations hope that EADA will partner with ASTM (formerly the American Standards for Testing and Materials) and an alliance of aircraft builders to develop standards and confront regulatory issues, advocate for electric aircraft industry goals, promote and network for future flight, and educate the public on these exciting new technologies and their promise. On Thursday March 29, a series …