Swiss Smartflyer – An Advanced Design

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Aircraft Components, Electric Aircraft Materials, Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, GFC, Hybrid Aircraft, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

The Swiss Smartflyer SF-1 is an advanced design showing links to the second-place finisher in the 2011 Green Flight Challenge. Launching an Airplane and an Event The creators of the Smartflyer were intent on developing a different kind of aircraft when they started in 2015.  Their hybrid aircraft had three different modes of power from the beginning: pure electric power from batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and a Rotax engine driving a generator that powers the motor’s batteries. They’ve retained those three configurations to this day, obviously modifying or upgrading them as technology changed.  That’s part of the beauty of electric aircraft.  Motors, components and batteries keep improving, and are easy to add or change. In pure electric version, batteries fill nose, promise 2.5 hours of flight. The overall design is close to that of the original, with three replaceable power sources available for the long nose and a high-mounted propeller on the vertical tail.  That “look” came from Dipl-Ing. Rudolf …

Smartflyer Moves, Along with Former Namesake Fly-in

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Aircraft Components, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, hydrogen, Hydrogen Fuel, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Smartflyer is a four-passenger, proof-of-concept light aircraft that can fly on pure electric power, as a hybrid with an av-gas powered generator, or as a hydrogen-fuel-cell-driven airplane.  It’s been under development for several years, but is moving production to Stelzach – just nearby.  Likewise, the Smartflyer Challenge, an electric aircraft fly-in, is moving from Smartflyer’s Grenchen, Switzerland home to Bern, a much larger field about 20 miles south. The Smartflyer SFX1 Electric-Flight.eu reports, “The fuselage of the Smartflyer SFX1 is slowly taking shape.”  Company founder Rolf Stuber OK’d production of the first carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) fuselage at Aerolite near Lucerne.  In a rented hall of 500 square meters (5,382 square feet), the “ready-to-install” drivetrain, consisting of a well-tested Rotax 914 engine coupled to a YASA generator, workers will assemble the major components. The SFX1, due to fly next year, has the following specifications: Cruise Speed: 120 knots / 222 km/h (138 mph) Take off Power: 160 kilowatts (214.5 …

Electrifly-in: Grenchen 2021

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, GFC, Hybrid Aircraft, Hydrogen Fuel, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Electrifly-in, formerly the Smartflyer Challenge, is on for September 11 and 12, 2021, in Grenchen, Switzerland.  The event, even held in 2020 despite the pandemic, is a compact showing of the latest in electrical aircraft and technology.  Watch as this 2019 video as a Φnix (the Greek letter phi + nix –a clever bilingual pun) takes off, circuits the area and makes a landing – all the time flying with other electric aircraft. In this flight, you can see the compact airport (including a grass landing strip) and a lovely setting for a great event.  Started as the Smartflyer Challenge* in 2016, the gathering has changed its name to be more inclusive. Last year, even with travel limitations imposed worldwide, saw a healthy turnout of all-electric flyers, ranging from ultralight electric “trikes” to cross-country tourers. From 12 to 50 Kilowatts and Beyond Powering a large number of machines on last year’s flight line, Eck-Geiger Engineering makes a range of motors …

SmartFlyer is Looking Smart

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Only a design concept just a few years ago, the SmartFlyer hybrid aircraft is swiftly approaching full-fledged reality.  CEO Rolf Stuber started the project and has been joined by Daniel Wenger, who shares design honors with him; and eleven others with a dazzling array of skills and degrees.  Every member of the team has built, flies or has flown in everything from gliders to “heavy” airliners. The team’s goal is to craft a “proof of concept” airplane which will fly by 2021. Facebook Updates Recent Facebook photographs show a nose section with a Rotax 914 engine driving a special generator, yards of orange cable connecting the big pieces, and a set of formers for what will probably be the fuselage mold. smartflyer-challenge, 2nd edition this weekend visit the second fly-in for electric aircraft this weekend in Grenchen, Switzerland. The smartflyer team will be there. More info on https://www.smartflyer-challenge.com/ Posted by Smartflyer-aircraft on Monday, August 27, 2018 Pilots and passengers will …

SmartFlyer – an Electric Four-Seater?

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

The people behind the Smartflyer, a Swiss design concept now under development ask, “Why does the Smartflyer look like this?  With a tail-mounted electric motor, it’s a bit reminiscent of e-Genius, and also a bit like a strutless Rutan Skigull.  In fact, the basic configuration has been used on many significant aircraft over the last several decades, as a segment of Smartflyer’s web site shows. As Herr Professor Dipl-Ing. Rudolf Voit-Nitschmann, Project Leader on e-Genius explained, several benefits accrue from this arrangement of aerodynamic elements. Compared to a conventional touring motor glider a substantial larger propeller-diameter can be realized without a high and consequentially heavier undercarriage. Therefore the propeller-efficiency will increase. The front body part has the aerodynamic quality of a modern glider (no vorticities and local impact pressure peaks) and thus a very small drag. The propeller is optimally protected from ground contact. Electric motors are light enough to mount on a tail and are therefore able to benefit from that placement while …