Sustainable Skies in San Francisco

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Powerplants, GFC, Hybrid Aircraft, SAS, Sky Taxis, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

I’m writing this in the first person, rather than the usual third-person voice that allows me to remain objective about things on which I report.  In this case, I have been the recipient of much joy over the last ten years from being an observer of the ongoing progress in electric aviation. Dr. Brien Seeley, founder of the Sustainable Aviation Foundation, asked me to begin writing a blog about electric aviation in 2009.  One of my original postings concerned a Kitplanes Magazine contributor, David Ullman – who was this year’s Sustainable Aviation Symposium’s keynote speaker.  In 2009, he predicted a great future for electric aviation – most of which has come to pass, and some of which he is creating in his hangar with his fully-instrumented wind tunnel and ambitious blown-wing design.  He proposes something called USTOL, Ultimate Short Takeoff and Landing, aircraft that will use a dynamic relationship between their power and lift systems.  His vehicle for demonstrating this …

Elytron Changes Names, Forms, Becomes Converticopter

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Oliver Garrow has been pursuing the dream of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) flight for a decade, starting long before it became the currently fashionable ideal for “flying car” enthusiasts.  He sold a little over 1,000 simulation packages to enthusiasts, who could “fly” variants of the Verticopter™ ranging from three to 65 feet in span.  At the same time in 2010, Garrow was testing large radio-controlled models of the concept at NASA Ames, Moffett Field, California. The craft’s configuration changed considerably as Oliver refined his concept, with a full-scale prototype displayed at the HAI (Helicopter Association International) Helicopter Expo in Orlando, Florida in 2015.  The company and vehicle names changed to VTOL Aerospace and Converticopter™. Later, Garrow’s team tested the static thrust of the prototype, achieving close to 1,000 pounds of thrust at about 1/3 throttle on the 450 shaft horsepower turbocharged engine. Here it’s shown in hover in 96-inch span model (CVC96) form earlier this year.  The use of …

Larry Page’s Flying Car(s)?

Dean Sigler Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

A3 backed by Airbus, EHang 184 from China, and Zee from Larry Page (head of Google) – Silicon Valley seems an unlikely source of aeronautical breakthroughs, but several entrepreneurial outings from Airbus, Chinese startups, and Zee.Aero, led by a secretive Larry Page, have interest growing.  A pair of recent flights by Zee’s craft in Hollister, California have generated coverage – and speculation. Larry Page’s Two Companies It turns out Page has a second company, Kitty Hawk, taking yet another path toward electrified flying cars with something like a large quadcopter – not unlike the eHang 184.  Neither Zee.Aero nor Kitty Hawk is affiliated with Google, both funded out of Page’s largesse.  One theory is that his two companies, the first started by noted aerodynamicist Ilan Kroo and the second headed by Sebastian Thrun, will engage in a friendly competition to create the best device for future development. Considering the secrecy, or perhaps because of it, a few recent flights by …

Hybrid Happening Follow-up, Followed by Not-So-Wild Speculation

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Richard Glassock, the blog’s unofficial hybrid power reporter, sent the link to this video about the NASA GL-10 Greased Lightning test vehicle – which combines hybrid power with vertical take-off and landing abilities.  It’s a more detailed look at the power system and flight characteristics of this aircraft. The Graupner model airplane people obviously know a good thing when they see it, as reported here by the TestFlite gang – a group of enthusiastic model builders and flyers with a try it on and see if it fits attitude.  They excel in action-packed aerial photography that would make Michael Bay jealous.  Their test subject flies like a GL-10 or Joe Ben Bevirt’s S2s, and looks a great deal like an Oliver Garrow design. Graupner’s price seems reasonable for a model craft that emulates what NASA doubtless spent much more on perfecting.  It manages to perform the same kind of VTOL performance with very smooth transitions to forward flight.  The software, …

Elytron Shows Off POC Demonstrator at Heli Expo 2015

Dean Sigler Diesel Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

 Since last August at AirVenture 2014, Elytron Aircraft, LLC has made great progress.  The aircraft on display at Oshkosh last year was promising, but about half finished.  The completed two-seat, proof-of-concept (POC) airframe shown March 3rd through 5th this year at the HAI Heli Expo in Orlando, Florida seems ready to go and remarkably light at its 1,100 pound design goal. Elytron lists the following component advances for the last seven months, including completion of:  All carbon fiber work for the fuselage as well as the joined wings. The patented center wing, now fitted with its tilting mechanism and vertical flight control surfaces. All systems required for ground movement (taxiing). Installation and run-up of the turbocharged 450 sHP engine. Installation of avionics including ADS-B in/out. Its maiden flight is scheduled for mid-2015, with a full transition in and out of VTOL mode by the end of the year. Not content to show just a two-seat technology demonstrator, Elytron revealed its …

PADA Lectures Highlight Innovation

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

The 2014 Personal Aircraft Design Academy (PADA) dinner and awards ceremony, the latter held in the Vette Theater at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Museum, highlighted design innovation and the possible commercial exploitation of new technology.  Dr. Brien Seeley, Founder and President of the CAFE Foundation, hosted the evening and introduced your CAFE blog editor, who gave an overview of innovations in aircraft, avionics and powerplants he’d encountered on his daily hikes around Wittman Field. Dr. Seeley had the honor of presenting this year’s PADA trophy to John O’Leary, Vice President and General Manager of Airbus Americas Engineering (AAE), for the parent company’s development of the E-Fan, a twin-motored personal airplane that has been a highlight of the Paris and Farnborough air shows.  With the flying displays behind it, the proof-of-concept machine will be the basis for two-seat (E-Fan 2.0) and four-seat (4.0) production variants that will bring smooth electric power to private flight.  The two-seater, which can double as a …

Verticopter® Now Elytair

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

Oliver Garrow has been working with a convertiplane design concept since 2007, and has flown over 100 “sorties” with large scale models to test the concept and demonstrate flight characteristics. Reported here in 2010, the aircraft initially looked a bit like an annular-wing configuration with pivoting engines or electric motors for lift and propulsion.  Now, in its most current version, it looks a bit more like a box wing design with pivoting propulsion.  Oliver’s company has changed its name from Verticopter to Elytair.  As explained in company literature, “Elytair, named with the goal to offer Elite personnel Air transportation solutions, will be offered as a design platform through selective licensing agreements, for either manned or unmanned applications.” As with the Verticopter, the Elytair can land and take off in every conceivable mode; conventional take-offs and landings (CTOL), vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and short take-offs and vertical landings (STOVL).  As with helicopters, Elytair can hover, but because it can pivot …

Thrust Testing Wingtip Puffers

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Oliver Garrow, President of Garrow Aircraft, LLC in Mountain View, California, has been developing the Verticopter® concept for the last several years, and made a dinner presentation on his design at last year’s Electric Aircraft Symposium. Garrow’s Verticopter uses pivoting motors to provide vertical and horizontal thrust, with tip and tail thrusters fine tuning low-speed maneuvering capabilities. Verticopters will come in all sizes, with a single-seater ultralight as an entry-level machine and an inexpensive way to test the concept, especially when one uses a low-cost model aircraft motor unit from Turnigy (distributed by HobbyKing in Hong-Kong, P/N CA120-70), and a SPIN 300 Optically-isolated electronic speed controller (ESC) from Jeti for power – at least for the wing-tip thrusters.  The motor shown costs a mere $299 for its promised 20 horsepower, while similar German and American units run over $1,000, with similarly high prices for controllers. Testing shown in the video was carried out with lithium-polymer battery packs arranged in a 16S2P configuration …

The Verticopter® , an Adaptable and Expandable Convertiplane

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 4 Comments

Oliver Garrow, founder, designer, and President of Garrow Aircraft LLC, says it right up front, “My design is completely counterintuitive.”  Pilots are used to counterintuitive thinking.  Push the nose down and add power when you’ve stalled and are heading groundward anyway, for instance.  But the logic of what Garrow is doing becomes apparent only when you see the Verticopter® flying.  Adaptable for varying flight characteristics, the Verticopter can be powered by one or more motors.  A single motor, for instance, would provide a simple solution for a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft.  A short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) airplane might use two or more motors.  Full vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) would require four to six motors.  Motors can be pivoted on all models, providing vectored thrust that makes the most of the airplane’s unique configuration.  Garrow sees electric power as ideal for this application, and the use of one or multiple motors simplifies the problem of vectoring the …