Total Operating Costs – Batteries Included

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Aircraft Components, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

Gilles Rosenberger, co-founder of Faraday Aerospace with Michael Friend, former Technology Director for Boeing, commented on a recent entry on H55’s Energic two-seat trainer.  He expanded on the idea of total operating costs for electric aircraft, including the battery replacement. He congratulated the H55 team and added a point about which your editor will attempt greater diligence.  “But why keeping talking about operating cost and not total cost of ownership?  No pilot, no student is going to pay only few dollars per hours based on the energy cost.  Who do you believe is going to pay for other cost including the battery amortization?” Practicing the best public relations and salesmanship gambits, most aircraft sales operations don’t mention the eventual cost of battery replacement.  Gilles, who can speak from experience because of his work on the Airbus E-Fan project, says, “Best industry standards seem to be today 1.000 € (or $1,125) per kWh for a 1,000 cycles non-certified battery pack.” What …

Airbus e-Fan Prepared Well for Today’s Cross-Channel Flight

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

106 years after Louis Bleriot took off into a foggy morning and pointed the nose of his Model XI toward the Dover coast, Airbus celebrates the event with an anniversary flight of their e-Fan prototype,  now sporting a bigger, more powerful battery pack, lightened airframe and lighter electrical components. Their press release carefully avoids mentioning Hugues Duval’s flight the day before, apparently done to upstage the e-Fan’s trip.  It does claim credit for making the first cross-channel flight in a “twin-engine electric plane,” even though Duval’s Cri-Cri was powered by twin Electravia motors. “At 11am on a calm, sunny summer morning, the Airbus E-Fan touched down in Calais to enter its name in the record books. The all-electric plane became the first twin-engine electric plane taking off by its own power to negotiate the English Channel, more than 100 years after Louis Blériot had first made the intrepid journey. “Travelling in the opposite direction to the pioneering Frenchman and powered by lithium-ion …

Airbus Has an Electric Project on the Side

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Employees at the Airbus Filton, Bristol facilities in England help advance aerospace activities with a dedicated lifecycle approach to their endeavors.  This includes design, supply chain, manufacturing, aircraft operation and end of life phases which are subject to definition, analysis, and ongoing improvement.  Filton designs all wings, fuel systems and landing gears for Airbus commercial aircraft, and makes the wings for the A400M military transport plane. The group’s adherence to their principles has helped result in Airbus aircraft showing a reduction in CO2 emission of 75 percent in the last 40 years, a drop of nitrogen oxides of 90 percent, and a reduction of noise by 65 percent.  Airbus is the only aircraft company to be certified to ISO 14001 environmental standards, according to the presentation Andrew Nixon gave to the Western England Aerospace Forum (WEAF) Annual Conference earlier this year. In January, 2015, the Bristol Wing of the Light Aircraft Association, the UK equivalent of the Experimental Aircraft Association, …

EAS VIII: High Torque, Efficiency and Powerful Motors

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

David Calley heads Planet Rider LLC, a design group working on a highly innovative three-wheel commuter vehicle that combines pedaling, electric power and aerodynamics to make for an exciting ride.  Any resemblance between this machine and the average e-bike is like the difference between an early Rogallo wing and the Archaeopteryx. He has made a significant notch in fuel savings for big rig trucks with the angular extensions you see on tailgates of trailers cruising America’s highways.  Fuel savings of five percent or more are a boon to fleet operators, thanks to Calley’s patented design, now manufactured by ATDynamics.  He is also a member of the CAFE Foundation’s advisory board. Thus, it was informative to see his presentation at the eighth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium.  His work on low-RPM motors using his simple transverse flux motor design enables excellent power and high torque from light-weight, compact motors.  This fits the need to swing big, slow propellers for applications such as …

EADS Developing Line of Production Light Electric Aircraft

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) has been heating up some batteries lately, announcing production plans for the E-Fan prototype unveiled at the 2012 Paris Air Show and showing a four-seat derivative, the 4.0.  Both share the twin-motor ducted fan configuration that makes the trainer and light electric airplane look like an A-10 Warthog, but with much less fearsome aspects. Tony Osborne, reporting in the May 8 online Aviation Week and Space technology, reports, “To produce Europe’s first wholly electric-powered aircraft the Airbus Group is partnering with French industry and entering the light aircraft market.  A new subsidiary, VoltAir [lovely French pun], will be set up in the coming months to develop and produce the two-seat E-Fan 2.0 and the four-seat E-Fan 4.0. The two models are being aimed at the general aviation market, and officials say prices will be competitive with those of current piston-engine light aircraft—around $300,000—but with operating costs that are less than a fraction of …