First Rollout of a Green Flight Challenge Flyer

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC Leave a Comment

On November 22, 2010, PC-Aero rolled out Elektra One with a running motor, the Geiger HP-13.5 unit normally found on paramotors, trikes, and the Swift flown by Manfred Ruhmer.  Testing and the public unveiling took place at the Rotortec Company in Gonsried, Germany.  The airplane had shed the tricycle gear  it displayed at the Friedrichshafen Expo for Sustainable Mobility, where it had been a centerpiece in June, 2010.  It now sports what looks like a center-line retractable gear much like that of the Fournier motor gliders. A month later, December 22, the team “performed successfully the static tests of Elektra One for the German Ultralight Certification. The structure of the aircraft (wing, fuselage and tails) [were] loaded up to limit load.”  Test flights are set for January, and the aircraft is scheduled to participate in the Green Flight Challenge in July at Santa Rosa, California.  There, it will have to fly a  200 mile closed course on a single charge of its batteries at …