Remy Oktay, A Pipistrel Alpha Electro and a Fleet of Ford F-150s Set a Record

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Last week, we reported on the planned flight from Hartford, Connecticut and back in a Pipistrel Alpha Electro.  Lafayette College student Remy Oktay devise a clever way to recharge the airplane along the way, enlisting a small fleet of Ford F-150 Lightning pickups to charge the small craft.  Remy managed to fly over the school’s football game that weekend, something even Super Bowl fans won’t necessarily see.  The scheme worked exceedingly well. as reported by the school newspaper and repeated here.  Jenny Davis did an admirable job of reporting on a complex project. Remy Oktay ‘24 sets world record flying electric airplane Jenny Davis, Assistant News Editor|November 18, 2022 Remy Oktay ’24 plans to fly an electric airplane over the Rivalry game, a first-of-its-kind feat. (Photo courtesy of Lafayette Gets Electric) With the help of Lafayette students, electric vehicle enthusiasts, pilots and environmental advocates, Remy Oktay ’24 set a world record this past weekend by traveling interstate with an electric airplane that was …

You Never Have to Level a Water Runway

Dean Sigler Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

A mild kerfuffle rustled through the mostly male audience at the fourth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium when the title of Natalie Jeremijenko’s presentation was announced. The somewhat befuddled response to “Wetlandings are the New Black: Grounding the Environmental Performance of New Flight Infrastructure,” indicated that many Symposium attendees were not GQ subscribers, or ever thumbed through their wive’s copies of Elle or Vogue. But Ms. Jeremijenko’s theme and stylishly-layered variations met with a favorable reaction as she launched into the exposition of her idea. According to her biography on the Environmental Health Clinic web site, “Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. Jeremijenko’s projects—which explore socio-technical change—have been exhibited by several museums and galleries, including the MASSMoCA, the Whitney, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt. A 1999 Rockefeller Fellow, she was recently named one of the 40 most influential designers by I.D. Magazine. Jeremijenko is the director of the environmental health clinic at NYU, assistant professor in …