According to its makers, “e-volo’s Volocopter is a revolution in aviation made in Germany. Safer, simpler, and cleaner than normal helicopters, it has a unique way of moving – a groundbreaking innovation. The Volocopter is an environmentally friendly and emission-free private helicopter. Instead of one combustion engine, eighteen electrically driven rotors propel it.” Alexander Zosel, managing director of e-volo, says that the VC200’s maiden flight and first test flights in the dm-arena in Karlsruhe, Germany on November 17 are precursors of coming production models. “There are already numerous requests for the Volocopter from around the world,” he added. The two-seat vehicle made several flights lasting several minutes each, climbing within the gymnasium but not presenting any danger to hanging lights in the 22 meter (71.7 feet) high enclosure. Notably, it did not carry pilot or passenger, but received commands from a radio-control transmitter managed by Daniel Gurdan and Jan Stumpf, two of Ascending Technologies‘ CEOs. Designed from the start as …
Yuneec Returns to America as Greenwing
Under the direction of CEO Tian Yu, Yuneec International is back in the U. S. as Greenwing International, selling the single-seat e-Spyder and two-seat e430, as well as a range of motors, controllers, and battery packs. Based at Cable Airport near Los Angeles, California, the group has been assembling and testing the first of the Flightstar-based e-Spyders and will have several on hand at AirVenture 2013 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin next week. The group recently had an illustrious name as test pilot. Erik Lindbergh shares his thoughts about his first flight in an electric airplane. “After five years working to accelerate the development of the electric aircraft industry I have finally realized my dream to fly an electric aircraft, thanks to Tian Yu and his Yuneec e-Spyder.” Modestly claiming video editing and ultralight aircraft skills still in their infancy, Lindbergh explains, “Take off was supposed to be just a crow hop on the runway, but I didn’t feel comfortable putting it …
e-volo Wins Lindbergh Innovation Award
e-volo, the company that crafted the VC-1 16-blade ultralight helicopter last year, won the Lindbergh Prize for that accomplishment and for its ongoing development of the multi-rotor platform, with single, two-seat, and unmanned aerial vehicles in conceptual versions. Yolanka Wulff, CEO of the Lindbergh Foundation, shared their press release on this award, given April 20 at AERO-Friedrichshafen. Erik Lindbergh presented the AERO 2012 Lindbergh Prize for Innovation to e-volo for the group’s “breakthroughs in redundancy, simplicity of controls and inefficiencies inherent in the control surfaces normally used in aircraft.” The Foundation noted, “This aircraft was so innovative that it appears to be in a category all by itself.” The award cited the safety of multiply redundant motors, controllers, and propellers, and explains that the next design phase, the VC evolution 2P, will “relocate the propulsion units above the fuselage which should improve the stability with a lower center of gravity and allow for the use of a whole airframe parachute …
Lindbergh Foundation, LEAP Host Electric Aircraft Meetings During Sun ‘n Fun
The Lindbergh Foundation and the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize combine forces to present electric aviation events during the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In in late March, according to information from Erik Lindbergh and Yolanka Wulff. First, the International Workshop for Electric Aircraft Standardization will take place during the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In at Lakeland Florida on Wednesday, March 28. The workshop will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn and “brings together civil aviation authorities, researchers, and manufacturers/designers for discussions on standardizing technologies of this emerging aircraft category. The workshop concludes with our second official Electric Aircraft Development Alliance (EADA) meeting.” The Lindbergh organizations hope that EADA will partner with ASTM (formerly the American Standards for Testing and Materials) and an alliance of aircraft builders to develop standards and confront regulatory issues, advocate for electric aircraft industry goals, promote and network for future flight, and educate the public on these exciting new technologies and their promise. On Thursday March 29, a series …
Green Flight Challenge Winners
Monday, October 3 was the second day of Nobel Prize announcements, but also marked the Green Flight Challenge Expo, sponsored by Google and staged under the control tower on Moffett Field, home of NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California. The four airplanes that flew in the Challenge at Charles M. Schulz Sonoma Country Airport in Santa Rosa, California were joined by Greg Stevenson’s full-size mockup of his GFC design and a Pipistrel Virus that had won an earlier NASA/CAFE Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) Challenge. Stevenson’s airplane was a reminder that there were numerous entrants that, for a variety of reasons, could not attend. There is a huge number of aircraft in the wings, so to speak, that will fill these pages in the next months and years. 20 exhibitors showed off their visions of a greener future, and three rows of tents protected exhibitors and their displays from the rain that started mid-afternoon. At about 11:00 a.m., attendees were bussed to Building …
Aero-PC and SolarWorld, Ford and SunPower Light Up Transportation
With electric aircraft showing the possibilities of a greener future, it’s rewarding to see similar efforts to produce cleaner, off-the-grid ground transportation. Calin Gologan had a gala week at AirVenture, speaking at the Electric Aircraft World Symposium to detail his Elektra One Green Flight Challenge entrant and to introduce his Elektra Two and Four two-seat and four-seat, respectively, electric aircraft. He was awarded the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) for the quietest electric aircraft by Erik Lindbergh, Charles’ grandson. Saturday, July 30 saw Norbert Lorenzen, test pilot for PC-Aero and owner of a flight school near Landshut, Germany, take Elektra One for a spin around the Oshkosh airspace. Note Molt Taylor’s Aerocar zipping by between the 15 and 18 second marks on the video. On the ground, the airplane was dollied out for takeoff,“overseen” by the capable Howard Handelman, who also noted something that Gologan had confirmed to Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation. The SolarWorld solar cells on …
PC-Aero Wins Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Vision Award
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 …
Google to Sponsor Green Flight Challenge
Green Flight Challenge sponsored by Google to bring historic firsts to aviation Aviation’s largest ever prize to be awarded at Moffett Field October 3 during exposition hosted by NASA SANTA ROSA, CA (July 29, 2011) – The CAFE Foundation announced today that Google will sponsor the NASA Centennial Challenge flight competition known as the Green Flight Challenge (GFC). CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency) will conduct the event from September 25 through October 2, 2011 at Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport. The NASA-funded prize purse of $1.65M makes this the largest ever prize for aviation. Competing aircraft must demonstrate at least 100 mph and 200 passenger MPG on a 200 mile flight. The aircraft in the Green Flight Challenge sponsored by Google represent a diverse mix of singular prototypes created expressly for the competition by some of the world’s top designers. Most will be propelled by batteries and electric motors, some by bio-fuel or hybrid. All competing aircraft will be …
A Trio of Winners at Friedrichshafen
Erik Lindbergh, as part of his Lindbergh Foundation, has instituted a suite of prizes to recognize and , “Accelerate development of practical electric flight, and stimulate meaningful advances in the emerging electric aircraft industry.” Having presented four prizes at last year’s Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture, Lindbergh followed up at Aero-Friedrichshafen 2011 as part of the Berblinger Competition – which drew 24 entrants and eight aircraft that actually completed the Friedrichshafen-Ulm-Friedrichshafen out-and-return course. With sponsors including Sergei Sikorsky, son of Igor Sikorsky, a competitor for the original Orteig Prize that prompted Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 New York to Paris flight; His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, who backs LEAP; and Messe-Friedrichshafen, hosts to the Aero 2011 and to the First Families of Flight gathering, LEAP garners a great deal of recognition for its prize winners. LEAP gave three awards at Aero 2011. In the best electric airplane category, the judges chose three finalists: • The Hugues Duval Electric Cri-Cri with …
Lindy Hop to Lindbergh LEAP
Sun n’ Fun, following a disastrous sweep by an F1 tornado through the flight line on Thursday, March 31, came back strong the following day, with F-22 demonstration flights, the Blue Angels, and a full contingent of top-drawer aerobatic pilots. The Green Aviation exhibits your editor had hoped to visit were partly gone, tents and exhibits having been dismantled and carted away in the remarkable overnight cleanup effort that took place, but the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU)/Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) Stemme S-10 gleams undamaged in the sun. Lisa Costello, a graduate student in aeronautical engineering, explains some highlights of what the students are crafting. Entered in the upcoming Green Flight Challenge, the S-10 was to use a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and lithium batteries for motivating an electric motor. That hybrid has been replaced by a Flight Design/Rotax hybrid that combines a 100 horsepower engine with an electric motor for power. Lisa suggests we go to a nearby …