Sebring is history, which says the aviation year is now underway. On whole it was a good show and a solid start to 2015. Sebring’s weather was overcast and cool to start though even that didn’t seem to dampen buying enthusiasm. About a dozen airplanes were sold plus numerous vendors reported finding many good prospects. By Friday afternoon the skies went to deep blue and the Sunshine State earned its nickname.
“It was a great Saturday,” wrote U.S. Sport Aviation Expo organizers. The 11th annual Expo nearly filled the auto parking lot and the transient aircraft parking area was hopping with activity, officials said.
While I write about the good news of Sebring, I want to pay respect to two fallen aviators. Dennis Day and Jason Spinks of the Aero Adventures company lost their lives in an unfortunate accident during the event. I offer my sincerest regret for this loss to their families and to the DeLand Airport business team.
Search Results for : electric propulsion
Not finding exactly what you expected? Try our advanced search option.
Select a manufacturer to go straight to all our content about that manufacturer.
Select an aircraft model to go straight to all our content about that model.
7 Aircraft to Look for at Sebring 2015
We’re off to the races … OK, the race track … OK, we’re off to Sebring, which happens to be alongside the Sebring International Raceway. Yep. It’s January so it’s again time for the Sebring Expo, this time number 11, the 2015 edition of the popular Florida show. I’ll be onsite for the four days, which this year is one day sooner, running Wednesday through Saturday. The plan makes it easier for vendors to stay to the end on Saturday and still have time to get home on Sunday so they can be back in their businesses on Monday.
Every time I head to a show people contact me, including journalists from publications that don’t follow Light-Sport, light kits, ultralights, or light GA as closely as we do). The question is always the same. What new aircraft or products will we see at the show? …Uh, let me think.
Working Aircraft … for the Fun of Flying
In two industry meetings held during 2014, Light-Sport Aircraft manufacturers, organization leaders, FAA personnel, and other interested parties reviewed a list of changes that would improve the 10-year-old SP/LSA regulation. Some items represent minor changes the agency could make fairly quickly. Others are more challenging. Number one on the list involves FAA allowing certain commercial LSA operations when flown by qualified pilots. Even if no great resistance exists — and reasons for optimism are present — this could be some time coming as regulation change is complicated in today’s federal government. Another area of intense interest is electric power. While unleashing development of LSA using electric propulsion also requires regulation change, an exemption might allow technical progress before rule change could occur. Recently another group with many more years of effort already invested was able to earn such an exemption. Ed Pitman of Pitman Air recently announced Exemption 11104.
WATTsUP at Pipistrel — eTrainer Flies
Electric aircraft continue to develop rapidly and the most visible actions are on ultralight aircraft such as Zigolo, eSpyder, or Light-Sport Aircaft (Evektor EPOS) as these are the lightest and therefore most workable candidates for electric power today. At Oshkosh we heard more about the two-seat SunFlyer in development by Bye Aerospace and those who visited the Fun Fly Zone (the place formerly known as the Ultralight Area) saw electric aircraft regularly flying as they have for several years. Now, one of the leading creators of electric airplanes is making a bigger push to offer a training-capable aircraft. As with several Pipistrel models the name is a bit unusual but WATTsUp is a two-seat electric trainer based on Pipistrel’s Alpha (video). WATTsUp took its maiden flight on August 22nd. The Slovenian company unveiled the new aircraft on August 30th at a popular recreational aircraft show south of Paris called Salon du Blois.
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.
Simple Aircraft (Like LSA) Need Simple Rules
In this post I’m going to do something potentially risky. I am going to make some statements about the politics of aircraft certification. While rather dull, this subject is nonetheless something pilots and others feel rather strongly about as the safety of aircraft — for persons in or under aircraft — is involved. Doesn’t everyone except a handful of thrill seekers care deeply about safety? I certainly do yet I feel it’s time for some new directions. I fully expect not everyone will agree, but I feel strongly that these statements need to be made. So, here goes …
My term as Membership Secretary of ASTM’s F37 LSA committee will complete later this year; I will be term limited out. That’s perfectly fine … I’ve done my duty for several years. ASTM’s F37 committee is the group that wrote and updates the standards used to gain acceptance for Light-Sport Aircraft. F37 is populated by some exceptional people that are largely unsung heroes for all the hard work they’ve done with little recognition.
Getting a Charge
Well, Thomas, you’ve done it again: gotten me to blather on so long with your as-always thoughtful and knowledgeable comments that I exceeded the comment buffer so have to palaver on here in another post. *** Well, that’s why they call it a weBlog I guess: it’s a place to hang our thoughts out to dry. *** So what’s below is a response to your comment from yesterday’s post, with a couple more pix thrown in to thump the eye candy factor. *** I think we can’t overlook the market factor here. Just as car manufacturers know where the buyers are, it could be what we’re seeing with these projects aiming toward higher/faster/more payload electric are manufacturers figuring that they’re since they’re going to sell more of the expensive, travel-capable airplanes than sailplanes and motorgliders anyway, why concentrate time and resources on a transient, historically tiny share of the market? Leapfrog to the future, expect the tech to come along as needed.
ZAP! Goes the Revolution
I have seen the future and it is electric. Lots more to say about this than I have time, space or energy here, after my first day at Oshkosh, but this much is clear: electric flight is a reality, just as the Wright Brother’s Flyer made heavier-than-air flight a reality. *** I spent an hour talking with the Yuneec E-430 people. *** FACTOIDS: *** * Made in China *** * The company just built a new 250,000 sq. ft. factory. That’s right: 1/4 MILLION square feet! *** * Company has initial plans to produce 6 different electric flying craft: ultralights, trikes, powered parachutes, hang gliders…and the sleek, beautiful, 45-foot wingspan E-430 (above) that went from light bulb idea to flying prototype in 4 months! *** * Getting FAA to amend LSA reg to admit electric power will take some doing. But you can’t stop a flood tide. *** Also saw Flight Design’s Tom Peghiny wow the crowds in the waning light at the Ultralight flying area with his E-Spyder, also powered by a Yuneec prototype electric propulsion system.
Look Out — A Hybrid Merlin is Coming!
First introduced in Europe in 2013, the all aluminum single seat enclosed cabin Merlin LSA has sported a variety of engines, including a Rotax 582, a specially built four stroke V-twin and even an electric motor. In fact, the Merlin airframe has served as a test bed for all kinds of propulsion and aerodynamic innovations. At AirVenture 2023, Aeromarine chief designer Chip Erwin even showcased a Merlin model with twin propellors imbedded in the wings. Erwin promises an even bigger surprise at Oshkosh later this month: a common-sense hybrid propulsion system for the Merlin.
Erwin, who has done work for the Air Force Research Lab in Dayton, Ohio, has developed a parallel hybrid drive system for light sport aircraft that utilizes an electric motor to add to thrust generated by a
piston engine during takeoff and climb, but shuts down during cruise. He points out that a major limitation of all electric aircraft is the need to lug around a heavy battery capable of providing thrust for a limited period of time.
“Charming” and Affordable, Part-103 JK-2 Nano Now Propelled by 50-Horsepower Engine
“When I roll up to the terminal on any airport, it never ceases to amaze me how a small crowd will gather around the aircraft. Happens almost every time,” said Jeffrey Boyd, importer of the JK-2 Nano single-seat gyroplane. “They just think it looks cute and different. Then they find out it’s quite affordable.”
I reflected back that this cleanly executed Nano had the same effect on me when I first saw it at AirVenture Oshkosh 2021. A glance at this eye-catching design, beautiful in its simplicity and compact in its features (see on trailer or in shipping crate) suggested to me that JK-2 Nano could find a market.
For more than a decade, interest in gyroplanes has been strong. After European designers took earlier American simple gyros and transformed them into sleek aircraft, a wider range of pilots looked at them more positively. However, those more elegant and feature-laden designs steadily rose in price.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- Next Page »