Randall Fishman must have a wall of medals, trophies, and award plaques for his many breakthroughs in electric flying. He was the first to astound Oshkosh attendees with the flight of an electric airplane, his ElectraFlyer C with a brushed motor and controller configured by Fishman. He picked up not only prizes, but magazine and newspaper column inches and Internet hits. His developments since then have diverged onto two paths, a two-seater and a pair of ultralight motorgliders. Randall sold a kit last year for his ElectraFlyer X to Richard Steeves, a physician from Madison, Wisconsin (look for an upcoming entry). and has been providing technical and material support. The X should take to the skies soon. ElectraFlyer’s Ultralight development took two turns in the last seven months. At the Sebring, Florida Light Sport Aircraft Expo in January, your editor saw an adaptation of a single-seat motorglider, displaying a new motor of Fishman’s design housed in a scooped air intake. The …
ElectraFlyer’s Near Future Plans
ElectraFlyer’s Randall Fishman and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University were the lone inhabitants with aircraft on hand at the “green aviation” display at Sun n’ Fun, exhibiting the modified Stemme and the ElectraFlyer “C” respectively. Having been within a few displays’ distance from the Thursday tornado that destroyed 69 aircraft, damaged many others, and dismantled marquees all around, they were probably fortunate to be there at all. Having decided to leave his two-seat ElectaFlyer X back at the shop, Randall had his four-year-old ElectraFlyer on hand, an airplane which hides what he describes as the only currently available electric motor, controller, instrumentation, custom propeller hub, and battery package in its neatly cowled nose, and which has been available for years before Yuneec and Pipistrel announced their systems. He avoids the term, “Plug and Play” because he’s wary of using connector plugs to carry high amperage and high-frequency between the motor and controller, preferring battery cable lugs and bolts for secure connections. …
Electrify Your Reading Pleasure
Flying Magazine, in its November issue, has its usual stunning photo review of this year’s AirVenture at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, but adds a three-page review of the electric aircraft that showed up at the fly-in. Robert Goyer, senior editor, is enthusiastic about the planes he saw, and gives the largest number of column inches to Yuneec’s E-430 two-seater. Goyer has reservations about the aircraft’s performance and limited range, and turns to another Yuneec-powered craft, Tom Pehigny’s FlightStar e-Spyder, propelled by a 27 hp, single-battery pack system, with the assessment that this type of craft seems more suited to electric power in its current state of development. Although Pehigny admits restrictions in terms of range so far, he “does point out some benefits we can see already. The e-Spyder…is whisper-quiet, smooth-running, dirt simple to start and smoke and odor-free.” Goyer includes a brief note on Randal Fishman’s Electra-Flyer C and new two-seater X, but gives little detail on either. Goyer foresees a …