At the extremely opposite end of the scale of its big brothers and sisters in the Airbus family, the Green Cri-Cri graced EADS’ (European Aeronautic Defense and Space) display at the second Green Aviation Show (L’Aviation Verte) held at Le Bourget’s Aviation and Space Museum (Musee’ de l’Aire et de L’Espace) between June 18 and 22, 2010. LIke its bigger siblings, the Cri-Cri has four motors, two on each nose pod protruding on stalks like insect antennae from the nose of the miniscule craft and driving counter-rotating propellers. The two small outrunner motors on each pod appear to spin with the propellers, and are probably concealed inside the spinners. EADS Innovation Works partnered with Aero Composites Saintonge and the Greencri-cri Association. Lightweight composite construction has replaced the metal and foam structure of Michel Colomban’s original design, which tipped the scales at 138 pounds empty. Originally powered by two chain saw engines, the little plane will probably find the reduced vibration …
The Autonomous Swift
There were two presentations on the Swift ultralight flying wing at this year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium. Dr Steve Morris of the MLB Company related the flight testing of a manned version of the craft, which had been and is being modified by a group of NASA researchers. That NASA team presented material on the unmanned version of the Swift, as modified to allow autonomous flight. Three industrious and inventive souls, Corey Ipollito, Paul Espinosa, and Al Weston, presented their work on the Swift Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), which they are undertaking with a small team of experts as a mostly volunteer effort at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Ilan Kroo’s famous design has had many variants, including several others electrically powered, but none quite as sophisticated, and none with the range of missions envisioned for the craft by this trio. The airplane, test flown in December 2009 by Brian Porter for MLB, carried its human payload for …
You Never Have to Level a Water Runway
A mild kerfuffle rustled through the mostly male audience at the fourth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium when the title of Natalie Jeremijenko’s presentation was announced. The somewhat befuddled response to “Wetlandings are the New Black: Grounding the Environmental Performance of New Flight Infrastructure,” indicated that many Symposium attendees were not GQ subscribers, or ever thumbed through their wive’s copies of Elle or Vogue. But Ms. Jeremijenko’s theme and stylishly-layered variations met with a favorable reaction as she launched into the exposition of her idea. According to her biography on the Environmental Health Clinic web site, “Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. Jeremijenko’s projects—which explore socio-technical change—have been exhibited by several museums and galleries, including the MASSMoCA, the Whitney, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt. A 1999 Rockefeller Fellow, she was recently named one of the 40 most influential designers by I.D. Magazine. Jeremijenko is the director of the environmental health clinic at NYU, assistant professor in …
Solar Flight at Night
The Solar Impulse prototype, HB-SIA, will be making its first night flights within the next month, according to a June 15, 2010 press release from the project team. With eight successful flights to its credit, the airplane will attempt two critical missions according to the release: “the first night flight ever by a solar aircraft “the first ever complete cycle flight to validate the possibility of long-duration flights without any fuel” “’To fly day and night with a solar aircraft is a human and technological challenge that has never been met so far, and an essential stage of the project’, says André Borschberg, CEO and co-founder of Solar Impulse. ‘Demonstrating that we can fly a whole day and night will then permit us to fly several successive cycles and come close to perpetual flight.’ “’The big question will be whether the pilot will be able to save sufficient energy as to fly right through the night. These night flights in …
Whither Are We Drifting?
Oxford University graduate students have been working on a yokeless and segmented armature (YASA) motor for the last several years. The unique construction simplifies the motor and provides a lightweight (11 kilogram – 23.2 pound) unit that, as shown, puts out 40 kilowatts (53.6 horsepower). Computer simulations show the motor could put out up to 150 horsepower, over six horsepower per pound, although the current version is being held to no more than 75 kW. Originally intended for the Morgan Lifecar, a hydrogen fuel cell powered retro-styled disguise for futuristic high technology, a pair have been mounted to drive the rear wheels of a Westfield Lotus 7 replica. This extremely light sports car is also a retro ride, having been featured as Patrick McGoohan’s homebuilt car in the 1960’s TV series, “The Prisoner.” Even prisoner Number Six’s car couldn’t perform like this, and its ability to perform four-wheel drifts would be the pride of any dirt-track racer. YASA’s web site explains the …
MotoCzysz Takes Isle of Man in Style
MotoCzysz, an Oregon-based builder of high-end, high performance motorcycles, won the second Isle of Man electric Tourist Trophy (TTZero – for zero emissions) race today, June 11. The MotoCzysz E1PC eclipsed last year’s overall speed for that event’s winning Agni bike of Cedric Lynch, 87.434 mph, and raised that over 10 percent, to 96.820 mph. It came close to running a 100 mph lap of the island, according to Gizmag, but Mark Miller, the Californian riding for the team, held it back to ensure a finish and a win. It did go through the traps at one point at over 135 mph. Even the Agni Z1 ridden by Rod Barber, was faster than last year, finishing second at an average speed of 89.290 mph. Despite the improved times, electric motorcycles still lag behind their internal combustion cousins, but are making progressive leaps toward equalling the best laps of 1,000cc racers. This sudden interest in electric tourist trophy racing is a result of backing and …
A Swiss Swift
Editor’s note: Livio Mengotti sent this comment regarding Dr. Steve Morris’s Swift’s first flights in California, under the pilotage of Brian Porter. (See “A Manned Swift Takes Flight,” March 1, 2010.) The videos are self-explanatory and filled with technical detail. Based on the videos, Switzerland is filled with open fields and glorious vistas awaiting aerial exploitation. Compare Livio’s undercarriage and pilot accommodations with those of Morris’s craft and the pod on Manfred Ruhmer’s Swift conversion. Note, also, that the motor is mounted on the front of the wing, instead of behind it, as on the other two examples. Congratulations for your performance! I built an electric Swift too. I made two flights on April 2010. I can mount and remove the motor and the rechargeable battery with 5 bolts. So I can flight the Swift also without engine as a hang glider. All the best for the further development of your Swift Livio Mengotti
A World Distance Record Without Recharging?
The headline reads, “EV breaks record with 1,003-km run,” but that might be a little misleading. The Kyodo News reported the following about an astonishing run made with a Daihatsu electric vehicle. “A Tokyo civic group said Sunday it managed to get an electric car to run 1,003.184 km (about 622 miles) without a recharge, shattering its own world record from last year.” “The Japan Electric Vehicle Club said it will ask Guinness World Records to officially recognize the journey, which was completed at a racing course in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Prefecture, as the world’s longest. The vehicle, powered by Sanyo Electric Co.’s lithium-ion battery system, ran for about 27 1/2 hours until around 2:30 p.m. Sunday (actually May 22 to 23, 2010), at a speed of about 40 kph (24.8 mph), the group said. A total of 17 people took turns at the wheel.” “Guinness World Records has officially recognized a 555.6-km journey the group made in an electric car from …
Spider Webs and Slime Mold – Nature’s Networking Genius
As aircraft become more electrified and integrated in their operations, even light airplanes are turning to networking system such as ARINC AFDX and CANBUS to link their different operational elements (See “An LSA With the Electric Heart of an Airliner, May 24, 2010). The ability to sustain failure or damage in any one element without disrupting safe operation of other subsystems or the aircraft itself becomes a primary consideration. During the Electric Aircraft Symposium’s Friday evening dinner sessions, Dr. Svetlana Poroseva of Florida State University’s Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS) presented a four-minute rundown on her efforts to find a network topology that provides the necessary reliability and robustness to allow power systems or naval vessels in combat, for instance, to continue their missions with the least loss of capabilities. Her findings were that a web network, not unlike that of a spider web, allowed the greatest fault tolerance, least disruption of other services and enabled mission fulfillment. This …
Solar Impulse Soars on Sunlight
Andre Borschberg, CEO of the Solar Impulse Project, had this to say after he landed following the seventh flight of the Airbus-sized solar craft – but the first using its solar panels for power. “It was like a first encounter with the sun. After I had turned on the solar panel I could see the energy reserves increasing although the engines were continuously consuming power. Never before in my 40 years as a pilot have I experienced anything like this.” Martin Reichlin reported on the excitement of going solar on May 28’s second flight. “A few minutes ago we could follow by radio how André switched on the four sectors of the round about 200 square meters of solar panels on the wings of his plane: ‘Section 1 – on. Section 2 – on. Section 3 – on. Section 4 – on’, said the voice of our CEO calmly – not showing at all, that in this precise moment he …