No, that’s not the name of a rock band. But there is a real twin fuselage motor glider featuring a 145 kW electric motor, lithium-ion batteries, and retractable landing gear.
From NASA:
Pipistrel-USA, Taurus G4 aircraft is seen as it participates in the miles per gallon flight. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
CAFE Foundation Hanger Boss Mike Fenn directs the eGenius aircraft to the start of the speed competition during the 2011 Green Flight Challenge. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
› View all large images in Flickr
› Green Flight Challenge News NASA has awarded the largest prize in aviation history, created to inspire the development of more fuel-efficient aircraft and spark the start of a new electric airplane industry. The technologies demonstrated by the CAFE Green Flight Challenge, sponsored by Google, competitors may end up in general aviation aircraft, spawning new jobs and new industries for the 21st century.
The first place prize of $1.35 million was awarded to team Pipistrel-USA.com of State College, Pa. The second place prize of $120,000 went to team eGenius, of Ramona, Calif.
Fourteen teams originally registered for the competition. Three teams successfully met all requirements and competed in the skies over the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, Calif. The competition was managed by the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation under an agreement with NASA.
“NASA congratulates Pipistrel-USA.com for proving that ultra-efficient aviation is within our grasp,” said Joe Parrish, NASA’s acting chief technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Today we’ve shown that electric aircraft have moved beyond science fiction and are now in the realm of practice.”
The winning aircraft had to fly 200 miles in less than two hours and use less than one gallon of fuel per occupant, or the equivalent in electricity. The first and second place teams, which were both electric-powered, achieved twice the fuel efficiency requirement of the competition, meaning they flew 200 miles using just over a half-gallon of fuel equivalent per passenger.
“Two years ago the thought of flying 200 miles at 100 mph in an electric aircraft was pure science fiction,” said Jack W. Langelaan, team leader of Team Pipistrel-USA.com. “Now, we are all looking forward to the future of electric aviation.”
This week’s competition marks the culmination of more than two years of aircraft design, development and testing for the teams. It represents the dawn of a new era in efficient flight and is the first time that full-scale electric aircraft have performed in competition. Collectively, the competing teams invested more than $4 million in pursuit of the challenge prize purse.
“I’m proud that Pipistrel won, they’ve been a leader in getting these things into production, and the team really deserves it, and worked hard to win this prize,” said Eric Raymond, team leader of eGenius.
NASA uses prize competitions to increase the number and diversity of the individuals, organizations and teams that are addressing a particular problem or challenge. Prize competitions stimulate private sector investment that is many times greater than the cash value of the prize and further NASA’s mission by attracting interest and attention to a defined technical objective. This prize competition is part of the NASA Centennial Challenges program, part of the Space Technology Program, managed by the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist.
For more information about the CAFE Foundation’s Green Flight Challenge, sponsored by Google, visit:
For high resolution photos of the challenge, visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto
For more information about NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist and the Centennial Challenges program, visit:
Pipistrel-USA, Taurus G4 aircraft is seen as it participates in the miles per gallon flight. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
CAFE Foundation Hanger Boss Mike Fenn directs the eGenius aircraft to the start of the speed competition during the 2011 Green Flight Challenge. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
› View all large images in Flickr
› Green Flight Challenge News NASA has awarded the largest prize in aviation history, created to inspire the development of more fuel-efficient aircraft and spark the start of a new electric airplane industry. The technologies demonstrated by the CAFE Green Flight Challenge, sponsored by Google, competitors may end up in general aviation aircraft, spawning new jobs and new industries for the 21st century.
The first place prize of $1.35 million was awarded to team Pipistrel-USA.com of State College, Pa. The second place prize of $120,000 went to team eGenius, of Ramona, Calif.
Fourteen teams originally registered for the competition. Three teams successfully met all requirements and competed in the skies over the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, Calif. The competition was managed by the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation under an agreement with NASA.
“NASA congratulates Pipistrel-USA.com for proving that ultra-efficient aviation is within our grasp,” said Joe Parrish, NASA’s acting chief technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Today we’ve shown that electric aircraft have moved beyond science fiction and are now in the realm of practice.”
The winning aircraft had to fly 200 miles in less than two hours and use less than one gallon of fuel per occupant, or the equivalent in electricity. The first and second place teams, which were both electric-powered, achieved twice the fuel efficiency requirement of the competition, meaning they flew 200 miles using just over a half-gallon of fuel equivalent per passenger.
“Two years ago the thought of flying 200 miles at 100 mph in an electric aircraft was pure science fiction,” said Jack W. Langelaan, team leader of Team Pipistrel-USA.com. “Now, we are all looking forward to the future of electric aviation.”
This week’s competition marks the culmination of more than two years of aircraft design, development and testing for the teams. It represents the dawn of a new era in efficient flight and is the first time that full-scale electric aircraft have performed in competition. Collectively, the competing teams invested more than $4 million in pursuit of the challenge prize purse.
“I’m proud that Pipistrel won, they’ve been a leader in getting these things into production, and the team really deserves it, and worked hard to win this prize,” said Eric Raymond, team leader of eGenius.
NASA uses prize competitions to increase the number and diversity of the individuals, organizations and teams that are addressing a particular problem or challenge. Prize competitions stimulate private sector investment that is many times greater than the cash value of the prize and further NASA’s mission by attracting interest and attention to a defined technical objective. This prize competition is part of the NASA Centennial Challenges program, part of the Space Technology Program, managed by the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist.
For more information about the CAFE Foundation’s Green Flight Challenge, sponsored by Google, visit:
For high resolution photos of the challenge, visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto
For more information about NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist and the Centennial Challenges program, visit:
“Two 195hp engines should drag most regular airplanes along at something like 200mph.”
The Technam P2006T manages 150knots with just two 100hp Rotax 912 engines.
http://www.tecnam.com/it-it/flotta/twin/p2006t.aspx
Until you can put a reactor in a Boeing or Airbus for flight ranges measured in days or weeks, I’m not getting excited.
So having seen promoting electric cars as a “green” revolution without saying where and how that electricity will be generated , I saw this one a mile off as soon as I read all the winners were electric models , it had to be rigged.
I popped straight over to the organisers web site and grabbed “complete rules kit”.
http://cafefoundation.org/v2/main_home.php
I found what I was looking for in Appendix E.
Example #1: If a 2 seat aircraft consumes 200,000 BTU of bio-diesel fuel during its 200
mile flight attempt, that will represent 200,000 ÷ 115,000 BTU or 1.739 gallons used.
This then calculates as 200 miles ÷ 1.739 gallons giving 115 Vehicle MPGe. Since there
are two seats in the vehicle, this makes 2 x 115 or 230 Passenger-MPGe.
“Example #2: If according to the on-board totalizer a 4 seat aircraft consumes 100 kWh of
electricity during its 200 mile flight attempt, that represents 100 kWh ÷ 33.7 kWh per
gallon = 2.967 gallons of fuel used, since each gallon of 87 octane regular unleaded auto
gasoline represents 33.7 kWh. This then calculates as 200 miles ÷ 2.967 gallons = 67.4
vehicle MPGe and, since there are four seats in the vehicle, this makes 4 x 67.4 or 269.63
Passenger-MPGe.”
So real planes burning real fuel get assessed on real primary fuel consumption . Electric planes get assessed on how much electrical energy they consumed converted in ficticious BTU gallons.
Nice trick. So no accounting for the inefficiency of the charge/discharge cycle and above all NO account of how much primary fuel it took to produce the electricity that charged the batteries!
Since centralised power generation is generally only about 30-35% efficient this give a totally unfounded three to one advantage in favour of the electric aircraft.
The fact that petroleum based aircraft are able even able to compete in such a horrendously rigged competition is amazing and just shows how utterly wasteful these “green wonder” electrics are.
Two hundred miles on one gallon of fuel / person. Astounding
And the press release does not even have the curtsey to mention the name of REAL winner , the third placed aircraft.
From the Lange Antares site;
http://www.lange-aviation.com/htm/english/products/antares_h3/antares_h3.html
6000 Kilometer range using fuel-cells
In 2010 the project partners tested how fuel cells perform in aviation, using the flying test-bed, the Antares DLR-H2. During one of these tests, an altitude record of 2560 m (8400 ft) was set. The Antares H3 will demonstrate significantly increased performance: The developers plan to achieve a range of up to 6000 km (3200 Nm), and an endurance of more than 50h. For the Antares H2, these values were respectively 700 km (405 Nm) and 5 hours. The aircraft will have a wingspan of 23 m ((75 ft), a maximum takeoff weight of 1.25 metric tons (2756 lb), and it will carry payloads of up to 200 kg (440 lb). The aircraft will use four external pods to house fuel cells and fuel.
It was from seemingly crude beginnings such as the above that were predicted to be doomed to complete failure by the experts of the time that we got the automobile, aircraft, jet engines, diesel engines and innumerable other items of advanced technology that are now accepted as everyday essential items in our lives.
And here is a photo of the winner: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6127/5933690662_d16608e459.jpg
“Chris Nelli says:
October 4, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Yes, new airplanes like the A380 and 787 easily exceed 100 miles per gallon per passenger”
Yes, but smaller general aviation aircraft the size of those in the contest do not. NASA has them at 5-50mpge per passenger in the article reference links.
“Philip Bradley says, October 4, 2011 at 2:45 am:
I gallon aviation fuel equivalent to about 36 kilowatthours of electricity.
It must be pretty close to being able to put solar panels on it and it could fly all day on solar.”
Recall the winner actually used half, 18 kWh over two hours, or a rate of 9KW. If its sunny, that’s an array of ~40 square meters if flown ~10 to 2PM, increasing outside that time range.
“P. Solar says, October 4, 2011 at 2:18 pm:
So real planes burning real fuel get assessed on real primary fuel consumption . Electric planes get assessed on how much electrical energy they consumed converted in ficticious BTU gallons.
Nice trick. So no accounting for the inefficiency of the charge/discharge cycle and above all NO account of how much primary fuel it took to produce the electricity that charged the batteries!…”
If one object of the competition was to inspire greater efficiency in aircraft, then energy used by the aircraft must be the metric. You may have a point about charging efficiency, but I think that should only apply intrinsically, that is if the design included ‘on board’ charging from either a traditional fuel generator or solar array in which case the the final result would reflect charging efficiency. Discharge efficiency was of course accounted for as the battery discharged during flight.
Small electric airplanes are an interesting technology exercise but I think will be like human powered flight. Everybody see lots of Human powered airplanes in everyday use? The tech has been around for 35 years and they even flew one a significant distance.
Maybe if batteries improve by a factor of ten, electric airplanes might be useful.
I’m not that impressed by the electric self launching gliders either. The batteries are heavy for minimal retrieve range. I believe jet propulsion is the answer for self launch gliders. My project is making progress.
What this is about is obvious in the name they chose – regulations, like ‘CAFE’ standards for cars.
They’ll be mandating a certain number of these in aircraft manufacturers’ fleets. They’ll force airports to allocate a percentage of their landing slots to electrics, like carpool lanes. Forget building a new airport unless it’s a quiet, zero carbon, all-electric one, complete with taxpayer funded solar panel recharging stations. The organizer of this is already talking about how so many people will be using these we’ll need electronic ‘highways in the sky’ where you surrender control of navigation. The market will not materialize, but the regs are sure to happen.
They don’t have to be practical. They just have to be something real they can mandate you to use.
I just love watching the Government departments giving tax dollars away, It makes me feel better about the millions wasted over in the UK, I thought that we are all “skint”, spent into penury by our politicians, it cannot be so! spending continues apace, monopoly money?
Electric, eh? So if you’re in a situation where terrorists are trying to hijack the plane mid-air, how do you dump the fuel? Do you discharge it into the nearest field of cows by lightning bolt?
Jake: If electric fans are powered by an electric fuel cell, dump the fuel cell fuel. If the fans are powered by battery, there would be any number of ways of permanently disabling the battery electronics.