Dawn Of Aeronautics: Battery Powered Airplane

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Battery Powered Airplane

Take your everyday metal moni motoglider, trick it out with a custom battery pack and you've got the ElectraFlyer C, a small electric airplane that debuted at the AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, last week.

The plane, which received its airworthiness certificate in April, features a 5.6 kWh lithium battery with a projected life cycle (the number of times it can be depleted and recharged) of 1,000 cycles. The battery has a max weight of 78 pounds and can be custom-built to fit the available space in an airplane. It provides juice for a motor driving a 45-inch superlight PowerFin propeller made of a foam core surrounded by an outer shell of carbon fiber and glass fabric.

Once in the air, the ElectraFlyer C cruises at 70 miles per hour. Top speed is 90 mph and the stall speed is 45. The plane can fly for 90 to 120 minutes before the battery needs recharging. When the battery winds down, just plug it into a 110V outlet -- your house is full of them -- and you're good to go in just more than six hours. Bump the voltage to 220 and you're flying again in two hours.

The people at Electric Aircraft Corporation say the small plane carries some big benefits. The motor is nearly silent, which means no earplugs for pilots, and brings the potential for flying into new sites. And then there's the a dramatic improvement in what the company calls "neighbor relations" -- no droning engines to drive them nuts. Electric motors don't produce a lot of soot or pollution, and overhauls are a snap. And by combining this motor with the ElectraFlyer's slow turning propeller, you've got a flight that is practically vibration free.

But the most compelling sell is an economic one: The company estimates that "refueling" the plane with a full charge of the battery will cost, on average, a whopping sixty cents.

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SPAINAIR FLIGHT CRASH-CAUSE AND DETAILED REPORTS

SEE THIS LINK FOR THE VIDEO….

http://www.guardian.co.uk

/world/2008/aug/20/madrid.spain2

A new video of this week's Spanair plane crash showed that fire did not start in either of the plane's engines, as had been suggested earlier.

The video, taken by AENA, which runs Spain's airports, shows flight JK5022 take off and begin to climb before it crashes and bursts into flames.

The footage sheds new light on the possible cause of the crash in which 153 people died at Madrid's Barajas airport.

Manuel Bautista, the bdirector general of the Spanish Civil Aviation Authority, said the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft had suffered more than one fault. "The motor is not the cause of the accident," he said.

One of the investigators, Emilio Valerio, told the Cadena Ser radio station that the video would be used to establish the cause of the tragedy.

Valerio said he hoped the cause would be discovered "within a month", for the sake of the families of those who lost their lives.

Investigators are speaking to witnesses and airport staff and analysing the plane's two black box flight recorders.

It has also emerged that the Spanish pilots' union Sepla of sent a series of letters and emails to Spanair's senior management warning of safety worries over a year before the crash.

In one letter, Sepla wrote to the airline's managing director, Marcus Hedblom, and his predecessor, Lars Nygaard, warning: "The operative chaos is putting passengers at risk."

The letter, dated April 2007, said: "It's our obligation to inform you of the elevated unease which exits between ourselves for the daily running [of the company] for the past month."

It alluded to a lack of resources, the quality of ground crew, the fact that aircraft were grounded because there were not authorised to fly and the scarcity of flight crews. In another letter, pilots complained "unfortunately all this indicates this will end in chaos".

In January, Sepla complained that the company had not replaced its aging McDonnell Douglas fleet with Airbus A-320 planes and a month later, the pilots union warned that the airline's focus on punctuality was compromising safety and security. The letters, reported by the Spanish daily El Mundo, also disclose concerns about baggage checks.

Spanair was considering its response.

Meanwhile, a couple who met in London were among those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

Brazilian Ronaldo Gomes Silva, 25, and Spaniard Ianina Celisdoizoyki met when they were living and working in the city. The couple married in Brazil last month and were making a visit to the Canary Islands to stay with Celisdoizoyki's family before returning to London.

Silva arrived in London in 2004. His sister Rosana told local media in Brazil that on his recent trip he had talked about his plans to return to Britain following his marriage and become a "European".

Only 19 passengers survived Wednesday's crash at Barajas airport, five of whom are said to be in a critical condition.

A memorial service for the victims is due to be held in Madrid's Almudena cathedral on 1 September. The first funeral was due to take place today in the Canary Islands.