Derek Piggott MBE: 1922 – 2019

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Fred To, who crafted the first solar-powered aircraft to carry a pilot, alerted your editor to the passing of Derek Piggott MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire).  Derek was a master sailplane flight instructor, movie stunt pilot, the first human to successfully take off and fly an aircraft on muscle power alone, and a pioneer in electric aviation. Your editor met Derek at a Soaring Society of America convention in Seattle, Washington in 1980, and has an autographed copy of his autobiography, Delta Papa: A Life of Flying, as a cherished memento of that event.  It covers his years in the Royal Air Force starting as a cadet, rising to pilot officer, and flying in Canada and India …

Feathers in Flight Inspire Anti-Turbulence Technology

Dean Sigler Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

“Inspired by nature’s own anti-turbulence devices – feathers,” researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a system that emulates the movements of feathers with which birds control their flight path in the most turbulent conditions. Dr. Case van Dam gave a talk at the 2014 Electric Aircraft Symposium on controlling aircraft in turbulence and providing smoother rides with Gurney flaps, jet flaps and micro tabs.  The RMIT team chose to mimic the motions of feathers on a bird’s wing to gain many of the same advantages.  The Unmanned Systems Research Team learned enough to file a provisional patent on the system, detecting disturbances in the air ahead of the airplane.  Both approaches might help the electric commuter aircraft …

Green Speed Cup Day Two – A Clear Winner

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

Robert Adam, one of the organizers of the Green Speed Cup in Germany and pilot of the Flight Design CTLS that ended the competition in seventh place, shared some information on the challenges faced by pilots in this year’s event. “We had 12-15 knots crosswind today (only a little less yesterday) and Tim-Peter (-Voss) managed this demanding taildragger (the SPACEK s.r.o. SD-1 microlight) calmly!”  This very light and short-coupled airplane flies with a variety of two- and four-stroke engines, but Voss’ had a Verner JVC-360 four-stroke unit of 38 horsepower.  It averaged a little over four liters per hour fuel consumption per 100 kilometers (59 mpg) over the practice day and two contest days.  In the Green Flight Challenge, it would …