Bye, Oxis, Safran Create Electric Business Liner

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

Bye Aerospace, Oxis Energy and the Safran Group have introduced an, “Eight-seat all-electric twin turbo-prop class airplane, the eFlyer 800™.”  It’s a fascinating combination of new airframe, new batteries, and new motors.  An American airplane powered by English batteries and propelled by French motors will be an international accomplishment, to say the least. The Airplane Maybe not coincidentally with Earth Day, Forbes magazine ran the following introduction.  “Bye Aerospace has announced an eight-seat all-electric twin turbo-prop class airplane, the eFlyer 800™, in response to growing demands for regional all-electric airplanes with significantly reduced operating costs, plus increased capacity and utility.” The craft, roughly equivalent to a Beechcraft King Air 260 in every respect except range, will be a fully-electric luxury machine capable of carrying one or two pilots and up to seven passengers.  Cruising at up to 320 knots (368 mph) at 35,000 feet would make quick business of its 500 nautical mile (575 statute mile) range.  It will have …

Oxis Batteries to Fly in Two Airplanes

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

While we wait yet another five years for commercial development of each newly announced but promising battery chemistry, one company has its cells ready to fly in Bye Aerospace’s eFlyer 2 and in Texas Aircraft’s Colt S-LSA.  Oxis Energy has managed to leapfrog lithium-ion makers with its lithium-sulfur battery packs packing 400 Watt-hours per kilogram.  Considering the best announced pack-level li-ion performance has been 260 W-hr/kg, the leap is significant. Batteries, for now, are at the heart of electric aircraft.  Until Doc Brown’s Flux Capacitor or a hydrogen fuel cell with Dollar Tree refills comes along, batteries are battling it out for our airborne dollars.  Lithium-ion remains in the forefront, with Tesla staging its shareholders’ meeting and its long-anticipated “Battery Day” on September 22.  Elon Musk has been dangling the promise of a million-mile battery for the last year, which may tie in with Chinese manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).   According to Bloomberg, CATL’s, “Chairman and founder Zeng Yuqun said …

Borschberg, H55 Introduce BRM Energic

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

Leadership is about empowering people to make them owner of their world, and constantly challenging them to make them extend their known territory.” Andre’ Borschberg Andre’ Borschberg’s current challenge, shared with Bertrand Piccard, involves their Solar Impulse Foundation, whose goal is to foster 1,000 solutions “that protect the environment in a profitable way.”  “Profitable” helps produce results, and with Piccard being a psychiatrist, ensures the self-interest that drives many also drives a certain level of altruism in saving the environment. Borschberg and two other Solar Impulse leaders, Sébastien Demont and Gregory Blatt, founded H55 and produced a modification of the Silence Twister, a single-seat aircraft with a Siemens motor.  Their latest conversion, following their philosophy of, “Building up experience by flying existing airplanes with electric propulsion,” uses what looks like an Emrax motor in a Bristell Energic two-seat training craft. “Single Engine Dual Battery Pack System” Energic is an electric variant of a Czech Republic Light Sport Aircraft, with an …