Your editor is back in action (in slow motion) having experienced two holes in his stomach, patched neatly by modern medicine and skilled practitioners. All is reasonably well and getting better. Certainly better than two well-publicized battery fires. The Bad News Coming out of the recent fog, your editor received an email from Karl Kaser (Kasaero) with dreadful news. One of two Lilium prototypes had burned, somewhat similar to the recent loss of the Eviation Alice in Prescott, Arizona. Battery fires are of great concern for the future of the emerging industry. A podcast on the company claims the firm is the, “Best funded air taxi startup in the world,” with 100 million Euros in venture capital riding on its …
What We’re Looking Forward to at AirVenture 2017
We’re looking forward to seeing progress in electric aircraft, and this year may be an opportunity to see real breakthroughs. Two from Pipistrel Besides its regular lineup of high-quality aircraft, Pipistel will have two Alpha Electro trainers on display in their display area. This is the first time these aircraft will be seen in America, and they’ll be at the right of AirVenture’s main entrance gate in sites 86 and 87. In the Ultralight Area Mark Beierle will display and fly Bravo, Richard Steeves’ e-Gull. This red, white and blue gem features a power system made from Zero Motorcycle components and boasts an impressive rate of climb and exceptional short field capabilities. Another ultralight, the EMG-6 developed over the last …
Controversial at CES 2016
Making a lot of column inches of traditional newsprint and reigning as clickbait on the Internet, the Ehang 184 is an eye-catching Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) causing a bit of controversy in the media. Unveiled at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2016), it drew concentric circles of photographers who normally save their enthusiasm for the lovely models showing off the newest iPhone or PlayStation. Coming from a firm that already makes hobby drones, the 184 (one passenger, eight motors, four arms) can carry its trusting passenger up to 20 miles, depending on who’s reporting. Its 14.4 kilowatt-hour battery pack allows a maximum of 23 minutes of flight, and at 60 mph, a quick hop to a nearby destination, which …
An Electric Altitude Record in Short Sleeves
Gary Davis of Greenville, South Carolina set a world altitude record for electric trikes, about the simplest of powered flying machines. His flight to 4,790 feet above mean sea level (under 4,000 feet above ground level) exceeded his hope to reach at least 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) and puts him and power system provider Randall Fishman in the record books, at least when the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) ratifies the numbers. Davis, a managing director in Nachman Norwood & Parrot Wealth Management Consultancy in Greenville, has that affiliation discreetly emblazoned on his North Wing Stratus wing. The company, possibly because of Davis’s interest, has 25 kilowatts of solar panels helping power its offices, and Davis and wife Deborah Meadows both …
UPS Tests Lithium Battery Cargo Safety Aids
Aviation Week reports that United Parcel Service (UPS) “is ready to start FAA certification testing of an active fire-suppression system fitted to the cargo carrier’s new fire-resistant containers, preventive measures aimed in large part at protecting crews from lithium-type battery fires.” The fire-resistant containers are the center of attention right now, though. After the fatal crash of a UPS Boeing 747-400F in Dubai in September 2010, United Arab Emirates investigators “determined that a large fire developed in the palletized cargo on the ‘Class E’ main deck in an area that included ‘a significant number of lithium-based batteries and other combustible materials,’” according to the Aviation Week report. That fire had filled the flight deck with smoke within three minutes of its …
Less Expensive Batteries May Lead to More Homebuilt Electric Airplanes
It came as somewhat of a shock that high-quality lithium battery prices could drop low enough to encourage electric aircraft developers an opportunity to “scrounge” in the style of the original home-built airplane builders. Early aircraft “home-builders” often cannibalized war-surplus aircraft or wrecks of private planes for parts and materials that could be adapted into their own designs. Ground power units (GPUs), for instance, became an early supply point for engine cores that could be converted to aircraft use – possible on “Experimental” homebuilts, although frowned upon by the FAA for factory-builts. Your editor thought at one point that auto wrecking yards might provide a source of used batteries for experimental electric airplanes, but the thought of all the internal …
Three Electric Airplanes Fly at AirVenture 2013
Electric aircraft have flown for the last six years at the big Oshkosh AirVenture airshow. Randall Fishman started the movement in 2007 showing his ElectraFlyer trike, and then flew his ElectraFlyer C, a single-seater derived from the Moni motorglider the following year. He won the 2008 Stan Dzik Memorial Award For Design Contribution “for the installation of the Electric-Motor power train” and the Dr. August Raspet Award. Last year he displayed his ElectricFlyer ULS, a twin-boom pusher with soaring capabilities. Others have followed, with Yuneec cruising overhead in 2010, winning the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) prize for the craft’s “significant commercial potential” and “compelling design.” Dale Kramer, flying his twin-Joby-motored eLazair around the ultralight circuit in 2011, showed the …
Randall Fishman’s ElectraFlyer ULS – a Gateway Plane
Appearing before attendees at the 2013 Electric Aircraft Symposium, Randall Fishman’s spoke of great accomplishments and grander visions. “ElectraFlyer ULS & Electric Ultralight Airplanes, the path to approval for all electric aircraft?” showed ElectraFlyer’s history and the ambitions Randall would like to play out. A pioneer in ultralights, Randall has been flying hang gliders since 1972, produced the first continuously powered electric aircraft, flew the first electric airplane at Oshkosh’s AirVenture and claims a primary interest of bringing practical, user-friendly electric flight to as many people as possible. Between 2005 and 2007, he designed, built and test flew his first electrically-powered trike. Making its first take-off on April 29, 2007, by May 2 it had made a one-hour flight. Ever …
A Fix for Dreamliner Battery Woes?
With Boeing facing financial doldrums because of its ongoing grounding and resulting slump in sales of the 787 Dreamliner, the stakes are high for the company. That makes today’s Reuters’ report that the manufacturing giant may have found a “way to fix battery problems on its grounded 787 Dreamliner jets” good news for not only Boeing, but for electric aircraft in general. Readers should read these findings with some caution, though, since another report from Japan gives a different possible cause for the problems. That said, the two reports might not be mutually exclusive. Many electric light aircraft developers use spacing between cells and some method to circulate cooling air over them. In Boeing’s two 787 lithium battery packs, eight …
ElectraFlyer’s New ULS – A Different Kind of Boomer
Randall Fishman must have a wall of medals, trophies, and award plaques for his many breakthroughs in electric flying. He was the first to astound Oshkosh attendees with the flight of an electric airplane, his ElectraFlyer C with a brushed motor and controller configured by Fishman. He picked up not only prizes, but magazine and newspaper column inches and Internet hits. His developments since then have diverged onto two paths, a two-seater and a pair of ultralight motorgliders. Randall sold a kit last year for his ElectraFlyer X to Richard Steeves, a physician from Madison, Wisconsin (look for an upcoming entry). and has been providing technical and material support. The X should take to the skies soon. ElectraFlyer’s Ultralight development took …
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