Two videos made available in the last two days highlight different approaches to recharging an electric airplane in mid-air, one for a full-size, trans-Atlantic flight attempt, and the other for a miniature drone which could fly persistently in a battle zone. Both have been reported in this blog recently, but without the helpful animation. VIDEO WITHDRAWN BY REQUEST (PLEASE NOTE: Chip Yates sent the following message today, August 23: “The video of the mid air recharging was done without any involvement from us and by some unknown third party. We have no knowledge of how that video came to be or why the plane is flying backwards. Please make it clear to your readers that this is an unauthorized video done by some enthusiast and not our plan whatsoever!” Chip Yates’ Flight of the Century proposes staging a series of autonomous drones on mid-ocean platforms to recharge a larger airplane by climbing up to and docking with it as it passes overhead. The video shows …
Fastest Electric Airplane Emergency Landing Yet
Chip Yates is used to going fast, having obtained a private pilots certificate in a mere two months, and test flying an electric Long-Eze conversion (Long-ESA) within two weeks of that, but he didn’t count on making the world’s fastest electric aircraft emergency landing during a record-breaking speed run at Inyokern, California’s desert airport on July 19. With only 58 hours in his log book, Chip managed to make the runway for a bumpy but great touchdown – a great landing being one following which you can reuse the airplane. We’ve reported that event already, but Chip just released a great video of the white-knuckle event. To help document his record 202.6 mph flight, Chip’s airplane was well instrumented, carried several cameras, and had a chase plane to provide eye-witness oversight. In the two months he and fabrication partner Chris Parker of CPR Fabrication converted a Long-Eze into the world’s most powerful electric airplane (258 horsepower – 58 more than Green …
Chip Yates Becomes World’s Fastest Person in an Electric Airplane
On July 19 at Inyokern Airport in California, Chip Yates and his Long-ESA electric airplane set an unofficial world’s speed record for battery-powered flight, hitting 202.6 mph just before a dead cell in the battery pack forced an emergency landing. It was the airplane’s second test flight. Following a day of taxi tests, Chip, who has been taking flying lessons and recently achieved his Private Pilot’s license, set out to see how fast his 258-horsepower mount could go. He has become the first person to break the 200 mph barrier for electric aircraft in level flight, beating the previous record by Hugues Duval at last year’s Paris Air Show in an Electravia-powered Cri-Cri. Duval managed to hit 175 mph on his run over the main runway at Le Bourget Airport. The same UQM motor in the Rutan-derived airplane powered his road-racing motorcycle last year, enabling him to hit over 200 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats and to set a …
An Atlantic Crossing With Mid-Air Recharging
Chip Yates, already famous for his high-speed motorcycle racing with eight world records, four national records, and a world record for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb among others, wants to make aviation history with a flight across the Atlantic, emulating Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 crossing – but this time with an electric airplane. Even more exciting, the voyage is planned to include inflight recharging of the airplane. For starters, Yates’ team, composed of aerospace engineers and energy specialists, has purchased a Rutan Long-EZ, removed its gas-burning powerplant, and is converting the airplane to electric power, which they might adapt from Yates’ racing motorcycle, claimed to be the world’s most powerful road-racing electric superbike. That unit puts out 258 horsepower and 400 foot-pounds of torque. In its new configuration, the EZ will become the Long-ESA for the Electric Speed and Altitude records it will attempt later in 2012. Just notching the records for electric flight is just the beginning for Chip’s …