An Aerial Pulitzer Prize

Dean Sigler Announcements, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Win a Pulitzer Without Writing a Word There hasn’t been a Pulitzer Air Race or Prize (Trophy) for 100 years, the last competition taking place in 1925.  The revived Pulitzer Trophy Races will differ considerably from the original events.  Those races were all flown with military aircraft flown by experienced military pilots.  Differing greatly in engines, the earlier contestants all burned fossil fuels: the current competitors will fly on electricity. The Original Pulitzer Air Races The Pulitzer Trophy Races ran only five years, and were also knonw as the National Air Races.  Winners during those five years included: 1920: Corliss Champion Moseley, flying a Verville-Packard 600, 156.54 mph, Nov. 25, Mitchel Field, N.Y. 1921: Bert Acosta, flying a Curtiss, 176.76 mph, Nov. 3, Omaha, Neb. 1922: Russell L. Maughan, flying a Curtiss, 205.80 mph, Oct. 14, Detroit, Mich. 1923: Alford J. Williams, flying a Curtiss R2C1, 243.68 mph, Oct. 6, St. Louis, Mo. 1924: H.H. Mills, flying a Verville-Sperry, 216.55 mph, Oct. 4, Dayton, Ohio …

Erik, Eric, Dr. Anderson, Verdego and Hybrid Power

Dean Sigler Batteries, Biofuels, Diesel Powerplants, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

In a recent AVWeb Vodcast, Paul Bertorelli interviewed Embry Riddle’s Dr. Pat Anderson on the topic, “Why Electric Airplane Designers Are Turning to Hybrid Drives.”  Battery energy-carrying capability has not fulfilled its promise yet, according to Anderson.  The difference in energy density between fossil fuels and batteries is still too great to fulfill missions involving more than small craft and short distances for the most part.  This outlook caused Dr. Anderson’s associates, Eric Lindbergh and Eric Bartsch to form Verdego Aero, dedicated initially to developing a Diesel-hybrid generator system. They corroborate Dr. Anderson’s sense of current battery technology, their web site answering “Why hybrid?”  They explain, “Electric aircraft are at the forefront of aviation technology, but the energy density of current batteries isn’t yet high enough to support many mission types or aircraft designs.  The power generation systems in the VerdeGo IDEP (Integrated Distributed Electric Propulsion) systems, which use Continental Jet-A Piston Engines, offer 4-8x the equivalent energy density of today’s …

Genomics and Sunlight Equal Fuel

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

AvWeb.com has turned a moderately skeptical eye on a new energy development that would sound too good to be true if it weren’t for the prominent names involved.  John Podesta, former White House Chief of Staff, is on the Board of Directors – and even more convincing, George Church, sequencer of the human genome, is a founder of and science advisor to the firm, Joule Unlimited, Inc. Their web site has more registered trademarks than Burger King*, including Liquid Fuel from the Sun™, Helioculture™, SolarConverter™, and direct-to-end-product™.  Joule’s technology promises Diesel or ethanol liquid fuels in huge amounts, using “proprietary organisms” to directly convert CO2 struck by sunlight into replacements for existing fossil fuels.  According to Joule, “Our technology has already been proven with the direct conversion of CO2 to liquid hydrocarbons and ethanol, avoiding the economic and environmental burden of multi-step, petroleum- or biomass-dependent methods.”  Claiming “commercial-ready” status, Joule says its interconnected components are “scalable and customizable to any desired …