Airbus’s Aerial Commuter of the Future?

Dean Sigler Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Airbus and its partner Local Motors have just finished a successful design challenge for delivery drones that can carry things like emergency medical supplies to selected destinations.  Recent announcements and the release of a patent drawing show Airbus is doing serious work toward delivering humans to their selected destinations in a scaled-up version of such drones.  Many brilliant people have tried to combine the benefits of ground and air transport over the years, including Molt Taylor, designer of the rightly famous Aerocars.  The example at Seattle’s Museum of Flight causes docents to lower their voices out of respect for the accomplishment. That’s certainly a concept promoted for last decade by Dr. Brien Seeley, head of the Sustainable Aviation Foundation and sponsor for this blog.  His AIAA paper on Regional Sky Taxis spells out his hopes for alleviating ground-bound gridlock with aerial alternatives. Recently, Airbus formed a group in California’s Silicon Valley called A3, or A Cubed.   The group earned a …

RX1E, Sun Flyer Both Score More than a Score (of Orders)

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

China Daily reports, “The world’s first electric passenger aircraft to gain an airworthiness certificate has been produced by China.”  Whether the “first” certification statement is true will probably become a matter of debate, with Pipistrel’s Alpha Electro being certified in France and seeking more general approvals from other countries including America.  Pipistrel has been selling a Taurus Electro G2 self-launching sailplane for the last several years, and makes the following claims for it. “Taurus Electro G2 is the only electric 2-seat aeroplane in serial production available on the market. Furthermore, Pipistrel believes it is the only truly useful electric aircraft out there, because the electric drive is applied to the glider airframe, where battery capacity is not a limiting factor in performance/endurance. Taurus Electro G2 represents a leap forward in performance, safety, functionality and user friendliness.” We noted the RX1E’s certification in the blog a few months ago.  It’s in production in China with the first two aircraft delivered to Liaoning …

Powering Imagination at the Museum of Flight

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Powering Imagination, a symposium devoted to that premise and to encouraging the development of electric aviation, achieved both goals on Saturday, February 28 at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.  Organized by Erik Lindbergh and Eric Bartsch, the gathering included two panel discussions and eight presentations that helped define where the world of electric flight might be heading.  Between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., presenters covered a lot of ground. Following Cale Wilcox, the Public Programs Coordinator for the Museum’s, introduction, Erik Lindbergh took the stage to explain the goals of the Powering Imagination organization, including making aviation clean, quiet, exciting and affordable.  This democratization of flight mirrors aspirations of the CAFE Foundation and is reflected in the educational efforts made by Lindbergh’s organization. He explained that the X-Prize helped jump start private space flight, then asked how we translate that interest into helping form an electric aircraft industry.  Development of this new industry may be crucial to aviation’s survival, with its …