I am writing from Europe, from two neighboring towns in what’s called Upper Austria: Wels and Gunskirchen. The former is where the Rotax flying field is located and the latter is where the sprawling Rotax factory is headquartered. The occasion is the 25th anniversary celebration for the 912 engine series and, by good fortune or exquisite planning, the simultaneous occasion for production of the 50,000th engine in the 9-series.
The large Austrian company that employs 1,100 people in a modern factory produces engines for a variety of applications in large volumes. Among these are engines for BMW motorcycles and others plus a range of engines used in their own products including snow mobiles, watercraft, and on- and off-road vehicles. They also make engines for unmanned air vehicles or drones and, as you are well aware, aircraft engines for Light-Sport, light kits, and ultralight aircraft. Of the latter, they’ve built more than 170,000 engines.
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Aero 2014 Review … Starting to Think AirVenture
Life has settled down a little after the rush that began at the end of March. Five weeks back, Sun ‘n Fun was approaching to kick off the season of recreational flying.
Aero in Germany followed with only a one day break before boarding the airliner to Europe followed by plenty of follow-up and contemplating the hot and fast action. With a couple weeks of perspective and to answer a common question — How does the industry look in Europe? — I have some final observations.
I found five areas to consider and list them below. Among all the many wonderful aircraft I saw, two particular subgroups stood out for me personally, one for its sheer success and the other for its subtle return to a higher interest plateau.
I refer first to gyroplanes and secondly to, well … what to call them? How about simply “ultralights?” Even that word isn’t right because Ultralight in Europe means something quite different from ultralight (vehicle) in the USA.
Quick, say “Octodecacopter”…and Welcome the Future
It’s premature if not off the point to say this exotic, beautiful prototype will be the death of the helicopter. I will flat out make a prediction: a whole new type of flight is here … and it will change everything … and I mean everything about how we fly.
I was musing the other day, while catching up on the latest multi-rotor RC model technology with which to populate my Christmas wish list, about how long it would take before we saw a serious effort to build a human-carrying version. Clearly I was way behind the buzz curve: talk about instant gratification! E-volo of Karlsruhe, Germany has just made a lightspeed leapfrog over pretty much every other vertical takeoff/landing design or project I’ve heard about. The gamechanger: the just-maidened VC200 Volocopter. Watch the video, then read on. This project and others like it is going to change flight as we know it, make no mistake.
LSA Seaplane Invasion …Can It Happen?
What’s going on out in the marketplace? More than any time since the launch of Light-Sport Aircraft in 2004, I have not observed such a frenzy of activity for a particular niche, this time for LSA seaplanes. Next season, in 2013, we could see no less than nine entries; three brand new and that count does not include any LSA equipped with floats, possibly adding several more. Yet some major potholes appear in the runway… or perhaps that should be waves sloshing over the bow.
One entry is a return of a LSA seaplane previously seen in the USA as the Freedom S100 (SLSA List #44) yet can it reenter the market without a full FAA audit? See Update at end. A new agency directive with the catchy name 8130.2G CHG 1 may require a FAA visit to Spain but who knows when that might occur, given the likelihood of an FAA budget cut through the political process known as sequestration, part of the so-called “fiscal cliff” the mainstream media drones on about endlessly.
Envelope Pushers
Two aircraft are getting lots of buzz lately for their advancement of aviation technology. *** First up is the electrified Cri-Cri, which looks like a toy but is in fact an important joint electric R&D project of EADS Innovation, Aero Composites Saintonge and the Green Cri-Cri Association. *** The four-engine Cri-Cri originally debuted as a gas-engine powered, homebuilt acrobatic stunt plane many years ago. EADS modified the Hobbit-sized twin to serve as testbed project for developing electrical propulsion systems on helicopters, drones and other aviation platforms for the future. *** The original stunt plane had two piston mills, maxing out around 30 total horsepower. The all-electric Cri-Cri replaces those with four brushless electric motors. *** The “go-gas” comes from LiPo, or Lithium polymer, batteries, all the rage in RC modeling circles for years for their comparatively high energy density. *** Brushless motors boast 80% or better efficiency, compared to the 20% or less of average internal combustion engines.
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