As the Stemme Green Speed Cup speeds into day five of a six-day series of challenges, the leaders are all – little surprise here – Stemme aircraft. Markus Scherdel took first place on day three’s task, a 346.1 kilometer (214.58 mile) triangle, with a new low in fuel consumption, 2.5 liters per 100 kilometers (94.08 mpg or 188.16 passenger miles per gallon) at an average speed of 142.2 kilometers per hour (88.16 mph). This is impressive because it comes close to requirements for Green Flight Challenge qualification. None of the five Stemmes competing managed less than 4.5 l./100 km. (52.26 mpg), right in Prius territory at much higher speeds. The Diamond DA40 TDI departed the contest because of other obligations for pilot Daniel Hirth: the Arcus electric motorglider did not compete because its limited range would have probably forced an outlanding. The video provides a warp-speed view of day four’s task. Day four found the S6RT, the retractable-gear version of …
Green Speed Cup – Year Two, Day Two
The Green Speed Cup is a closed circuit race similar to the Green Flight Challenge, but with a more free-style approach to how each team flies the course. As reported yesterday, the first day’s competition was won by Markus Scherdel, test pilot for Solar Impulse. The second day’s competition was a complete turnaround of day one’s results, with Wolfgang Uhlig taking the crown and Markus sliding to fourth place. Most interesting, the Diamond DA40 TDI, a four-seat Diesel-powered aircraft flown by Daniel Hirth, took second place. A longer event than day one, the task required pilots to fly from Strausberg down the longest leg of a scalene triangle to Klix, a village in Saxony. From there, they turned northwest to Finsterw Heinri and then sped north back to Strausberg to complete the 326.4 kilometer (202.4 mile) course. Uhlig’s winning S10VT toured the triangle at 163.4 kilometers per hour (101.3 mph) while consuming a total of 202.8 kilowatt-hours of energy, achieving …