CATL Gets Salty with Batteries

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) in China is promoting a different battery technology that promises lower costs and a greater life span than lithium cells.  This is another way to soften the demand for lithium, which often seems in short supply.  We reported on another approach, recycling used EV battery packs, last month.  This time, we’ll look at using sodium as an active ingredient in battery cells, starting with this three-minute primer on the difference between iithium and sodium batteries. Note that lithium batteries can use NMC (nickel, manganese, and cobalt) in their cathodes.  Like lithium, nickel and cobalt are hard to find, and cobalt often comes with the curse of being mined by children in slave conditions.  LFP, or lithium iron phosphate batteries have the advantage of having more readily available materials and being somewhat safer than lithium/NMC cells. CATL’s NAXTRA Battery CATL recently presented us with several offerings in new battery technology, but NAXTRA is probably of …

Whisper Aero – Ultralight to Heavy

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Whisper Aero, Mark Moore’s startup in Crossville, Tennessee, fields devices to move air, ranging from leaf blowers to fairly large airplanes.  The company recently showed a lineup of three aircraft, starting with a dual-motor powered flying wing hang glider to a nine-passenger silent medium-range carrier.  Each benefits from the quiet propulsion system developed by Moore and his team. The Whisper Lineup Whisper Aero plans a range of craft from a single-seat ultralight sailplane to a small lightplane-size cargo carrier to a nine-passenger transport.  All are capable of flying autonomously, and all will be powered by from two to 30 Whisper Aero eQ250 propulsors, each capable of 80 pounds of thrust.  In this video, Manfred Ruhmer, seven-time world Class 2 ultralight soaring champion among other honors, shows off his Aeriane Swift 3, taken aloft by an Eck-Geiger electric motor, and then elevated by its light weight and Manfred’s piloting skills.  It will be fascinating to see how The ship will perform …

A Good Friend, Richard Steeves, Passes

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Richard Steeves, a good and dear friend has passed, known for his achievements in medicine and among his friends for leading a long-term aviation club and even constructing a Coot Amphibian and electric ultralight airplane. Many will know him from his leadership of the Coot Builder’s Club, a group of enthusiasts who build and fly Molt Taylor’s design.  The organization publishes a newsletter that Richard edited for an astonishing 50 years.  He became great friends with Moulton (Molt) Taylor, the designer of the Coot, and wrote books and articles about the amphibian.  Now, with Richard’s passing, Andrew Wayne will take over running the organization and publishing the newsletter, which promotes the continued building and flying of this craft. In the early days of aircraft home-building, enthusiasts had to find plans for their intended craft, materials, and if possible, supportive local help.  This made building a Coot especially challenging.  Managing construction of a complex airplane with retractable landing gear, and mastering …

Sustainability at AeroExpo2025: Klaus Ohlmann’s Stemme Hybrid

Dean Sigler Announcements, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Klaus Ohlmann is legendary in his accomplishments.  Having surmounted Mount Everest in a sailplane, traversed the Alps and the Andes in sailplanes and battery- and solar-powered craft, and contributed to wave soaring studies, he is ready to set a new type of record – one with a Stemme hybrid power system. In its sadly last post, https://www.electric-flight.eu/ left us with this news.  “With a modified Stemme hybrid S10, Klaus Ohlmann wants to fly 2000 kilometers (1,243 miles).”  The publication missed its headline by 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), which would make Ohlmann’s goal 1,864 miles, requiring up to 20 hours of leisurely travel.   Stemme has long relied on a unique distribution of power components, with a fossil-fuel-powered engine behind the pilots, a shaft passing from its power takeoff between the two occupants to a forward-mounted, cleverly-concealed propreller tucked into a sliding nose cose.  The layout is similar to that of the P-39, and later P-63 Bell Airacobras of WWII.  Despite the …

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 …

FireSat: Spotting Wildfires Early and Responding Quickly

Dean Sigler Announcements, satellites, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

FireSat may be part of a solution to our world’s growing wildfire problem.  Recent events, such as the conflagrations ravaging Los Angeles, resulted in widespread damage and enormous loss of lives and property.  Spotting fires early on would allow quicker response, and with the appropriate gear, swift quelling of the flames before they became a tragic threat.  Sending information to a fleet of piloted or unpiloted craft, early warnings from Firesat satellites could direct a swift response that would prevent the growth of incipient wildfires. Fifty such low-earth orbiting watchdogs would use their highly-specialized optics to focus on the beginnings of a fire, as small as 5 x 5 meters (16.4 feet x 16.4 feet). Finding Fires Earlier and With Greater Accuracy Juliet Rothenberg, Product Director of Climate AI efforts at Google Research, has helped develop the FireSat program, in response to the hurried evacuation of her home four years ago when a wildfire threatened her neighborhood.  Then available satellite …

Turning Over an Old Leaf: Reusing Lithium Batteries

Dean Sigler Batteries, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Turning over an old Leaf (of the species Nissan) and reusing its batteries may be a partial answer to the shortage of lithium.  The energetic metal is hard to get and often in short supply. In several entries to come, we’ll try to find some answers to questions about sourcing battery materials, how safe we can make batteries, and what future batteries may be like. When Weight is no Object When you don’t need to consider weight as part of your battery needs, as in ground-based energy storage units, why bother with lithium?  It’s potentially explosive, so find elements that are less so, although sometimes heavier.  Or, in some uses, use all the potential from existing sources that no longer live up to their specifications.  Electric cars need a change of battery packs, for instance, when their cells can manage only 80 percent or so of their original range. One solution in Lancaster, California, B2U uses old Nissan Leaf battery …

Beta Barnstorms America

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Chris Stoner of eVTOL Insights reported that a Beta (Technologies) aircraft [completed] a “stunning” 3,064 nautical mile flight across America on March 4, the Beta Barnstorm.  Its headline-provoking journey gave many their first glimpse of a “mature” electric aviation product – one that could have great consequences in many areas. The Beta Alia CX300’s flight was charged along the eastern part of its route with an established network of charging and pilot rest stations built over the last several years by Beta.  Westward, the flight was assisted by a ground crew that brought Beta’s portable chargers to each destination airport.  Beta’s diverse and talented workforce is building a formidable network that will enhance electric aviation and its support structure through the next several decades. Nate Dubie and Noah Ranallo piloted the aircraft on a rotating basis while a small ground crew leapfrogged their efforts to provide backup and data capture. A Growing Network Beta’s network can be a precursor for …

A Survey For Green Aviation Lovers

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Jean-Baptiste Loiselet has a survey for those interested in green aviation to participate in.  He’s been riding the electric skies for three years without going anywhere near an electric plug.  He wants to know if others would like this kind of free flight.  Imagine flying for three hours at a time, quietly in an environmentally responsible way. GREEN AVIATION? SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR MICROLIGHT PILOTS AND AIRPLANES 🎤 We need your opinion. 🛫 I’ve been flying aboard the Sol.Ex., my solar glider for 3 years now. It has more than 250 hours of flight time to date and has never been plugged into a socket, while I take off all the time independently! 👫 I plan to develop the two-seater version of the Sol.Ex., to be able to share this fabulous adventure. And if the electric motor glider (solar or simply electric) is of obvious interest for gliding, I wonder if it would not also be interesting for all light aviation …

Pipistel NUUVA V300 Lifts Off

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Pipistrel’s LinkedIn page features a happy headline and the culmination of a long development process. “Reaching new heights! ✈️ We’re thrilled to share that the Nuuva V300 – our long-range, large-capacity hybrid-electric VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) unmanned aircraft – successfully completed its first hover flight. 👏” Pipistrel, a division of Textron eAviation, announced that its new NUUVA V300 hybrid-electric unmanned VTOL aircraft successfully completed its first flight on January 31, 2025, in Gorizia, northeastern Italy, next to the Slovenian border. The page continues, “With a 600-pound payload and a range of up to 300 nautical miles, the aircraft’s unique capabilities and robust design will not only transform logistics, but also play a crucial role in commercial and defense missions such as search and rescue, humanitarian aid, disaster relief and ship-to-shore deliveries.” AeroTime reports that the newly flown heavy lifter can haul up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds or three Euro pallets) up to 300  kiilometers (186 miles).  Reporter Miquel Ros …