A Green Flight Challenge entrant, PC-Aero’s Elektra One, has won the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Vision Award at AirVenture 2011 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, becoming the latest winner of this important award for innovation in the pursuit of “green” aviation. Past winners of the Lindbergh Prize for Electric Aircraft include: Pipistrel: 2011 Aero-Friedrichshafen Best Electric Aircraft LZ Design: 2011 Aero-Friedrichshafen Best Electric Propulsion System Solar Impulse: 2011 Aero-Friedrichshafen Outstanding Achievement Award Yuneec International: 2010 AirVenture Best Electric Aircraft Sonex: 2010 AirVenture Best Electric Aircraft Subsystem Lange Aviation: 2010 AirVenture Individual Achievement Award According to Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh and founder of LEAP, the organization’s, “Programs recognize, inspire and incentivize the innovation that drives our culture, economy and future. The LEAP Electric Flight Program is accelerating the development of the electric aircraft industry through a range of activities, from prizes to advocacy.” This year’s award, “Focuses on innovation with a “vision” for integrated electric power for an aircraft and its supporting …
Sikorsky’s Project Firefly™ Electric Helicopter Demonstrator
Sikorsky Innovations, the technology development arm of Sikorsky Aircraft, revealed last week at the Farnborough International Air show and this week at AirVenture 2010, the Firefly™ Technology Demonstration Aircraft, the first all-electric helicopter. Based on an S-300C, the electrified version replaces the original Lycoming drive train with a U.S. Hybrid power package consisting of a 200 horsepower electric motor, motor controller, and 1,100-pound lithium- battery from Gaia. To monitor operations and “the health” of the craft, Sikorsky has installed an LCD display in the modified center console. One benefit of electrified helicopters would be the discarding of the traditional complex series of mechanical links between the main rotor power takeoff and the tail rotor. The tail rotor on Firefly can be powered by small electric motor linked to the main rotor’s speed output signal. The battery pack’s high weight will allow only 15 minutes of flight at first. “Our objectives with Project Firefly are to provide a proof of principle …