SmartFlyer is Looking Smart

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

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 …

Pipistrel Rolls Out Hypstair Hybrid for Run-up

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation 2 Comments

Pipistrel took the wraps off its latest iteration of what was originally called the Panthera, the hybrid variant of which has been renamed the HYPSTAIR, a pun that fails to diminish the significance of the achievement. Pipistrel clams the most powerful aerial hybrid electric power train, powering it up on February 9 and making a mighty, but subdued noise, much of it coming from the specially-designed, five-bladed propeller. Putting out 200 kilowatts (268 horsepower) at full throttle, the Siemens motor turned the propeller using first just the generator, and then the motor in low and high power modes. The propulsor (perhaps a new term to consider as hybrid power becomes a common operational type for electric aircraft) produces 100 kW (134 …