PhoEnix GFC Update

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

High view shows 14.5 meter modified Discus wing on PhoEnix

Jim Lee’s informative and beautifully illustrated blog features “PhoEnix with the capital E in the middle,” the motorglider he will fly in the CAFE Green Flight Challenge in July. 

Electrically powered with a Krall 44 motor, it has a pointy nose and retractable gear to make it more slippery than the already high-performance Phoenix without the capital E and with a mere Rotax behind the propeller.

According to Lee, the 14.5 meter (47.57 feet) modified Schempp-Hirth Discus wing is raised above the low position of the gas-powered version to make room for the electrically-retracted gear, which hides in what was originally a luggage compartment – another change from the standard Phoenix. The wing is configured to win the GFC, as is the rest of the airplane. 

Electrically-retractable gear hides in former luggage compartment

Lee, the U. S. distributor for Phoenix Air, says in his blog, that “the PhoEnix is purpose built for a race. A race that offers big bucks for the winner, but with a bar set so high that it is unlikely that anyone will win it. But if any aircraft can do it, the PhoEnix can!”

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