Diamond aircraft seem to have been the go-to choice for electrification, with Boeing and Airbus fielding different versions powered by an array of powerplants. In 2008,Boeing’s fuel cell-powered craft, a DA-36 Dimona motorglider, “was modified by [Boeing Research and Technology Europe] (BR&TE) to include a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell/lithium-ion battery hybrid system to power an electric motor coupled to a conventional propeller.” Airbus’ 2011 DA-36 “E-Star’s” propeller was powered by a 70kW electric motor from Siemens, with electricity supplied by a small Wankel engine from Austro Engine with a generator functioning solely as a power source. In 2014, Airbus showed an improved version of this craft at the Paris Air Show. Erik Lindbergh chose the Diamond HK-36 for his Powering Imagination testbed, using a donated YASA 750 motor for power. For all that electrifying experimentation, the airplane as normally configured with a Rotax engine has continued as a trainer and motorglider around the world. Now, a larger member …
An Electrolyte Gel Sandwich
Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd. makes a wide variety of plastics, films, and active chemical components. Whipping up something light and powerful in their kitchen must often be a matter of tossing available ingredients into a new recipe. In this case, they’ve come up with something unique and potentially highly useful. Their research and development center director Satoshi Uenoyama announced “a high-capacity film-type lithium-ion battery “using a coating process that has simultaneously tripled its capacity (compared to other Sekisui Chemical products), increase its safety (as a result of standard safety testing, e.g. no problems with nail penetration tests or crush tests) and speeded up production by ten times (compared to other Sekisui Chemical products).” The company continues comparisons with its products, suggesting lithium-ion conductivity for the new battery is 10 times that of other Sekisui Chemical products. They claim “enhanced safety” through the use of a high-performance gel-type electrolyte, which because of its high viscosity, can be spread onto the battery’s film materials as part of …