Stephan Boutenko has a big vision…and he’s taking it to E-street. *** Anyone familiar with Bend, Oregon’s Lance Niebauer, the successful Los Angeles graphic artist who decided to design an airplane and spawned the highly successful Lancair series of homebuilts, which evolved into the production Cessna Columbia composite four-seater, should check out another Oregonian with a big dream: Stephan Boutenko. *** He’s boldly going directly to the internet for public contributions to fund his electric S-LSA. The company name is Alternair, and the airplane is simply called the Amp — perhaps an unintentional play on the word imp, because it is a cute little thing…but with big dreams in its electric heart. *** A professional pilot and Embry Riddle grad with an Professional Aeronautical design degree, Boutenko hopes to progress the current electric-powered aircraft technology beyond demonstration-style or exotic motorglider models. *** The Amp, still in the design stages, will perform comparably to the current crop of gasoline-powered LSA…at as little as 80% lower direct operating costs.
Search Results for : electric
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.
Broad Smiles After AirVenture Oshkosh 2011
Reports continue positively for results at AirVenture 2011… despite FAA’s partial shutdown, a media frenzy over the USA’s debt ceiling, a roller coaster ride in the stock markets, and a continuing bum housing market plus general uncertainty. If you can smile after all that, things must be improving. *** GAMA’s report of Type Certified aircraft deliveries for the first half of 2011 shows sales remain far below manufacturing capacity. Thanks significantly to Cessna’s hastened deliveries of Skycatcher, the LSA sector is surviving a bit better; of course, LSA sell many less units than GA and account for much smaller dollar volume. Here’s more evidence of improvement… •• Icon Aircraft announced they secured 143 delivery position sales ($286,000 raked in) at AirVenture for their sexy new A5, expected on the market perhaps by 2012. Icon generously donated 10% of the take to EAA Young Eagles program. •• Flight Design continues to log orders for its LSA but their new four seat C4 has now garnered nearly 100 delivery position orders (at $7,000 apiece).
Aero-lite 103
[UPDATE spring 2014] — The Aerolite 103 is now manufacturered in Deland, Florida by U-Fly-It, the contact info for which is located at the end of this article. In addition, a new company is representing the product in Europe under the name Vierwerk. The design appears to be enjoying great interest and support at this time.
[UPDATE summer 2011] — Aero-Works, the company referred to in this article written in 1997, left the business several years ago. During its absence a different producer, Wings of Freedom, offered their Phoenix-103, a derivation of the Aero-Lite 103 but with numerous small changes.
This article refers to the aircraft built by AeroWorks and will not be identical to the Aero-Lite 103. The companies are different and Terry Raber has no association with Wings of Freedom.
Now, in the summer of 2011, I am happy to report the original designer is again the producer of the Aerolite 103, and it retains an excellent price, less than $15,000.
Best Bargain in a Ready-to-Fly Airplane?
Many pilots speak of airplanes they cannot afford. Indeed, $150,000 Light-Sport Aircraft are priced beyond common budgets. One way to solve this is through a partnership or fractional ownership… and I will be writing about partnerships later this year. *** Another way involves a ready-to-fly aircraft for under $15,000. You read it right: $14,995 for a ready to fly aircraft with many features you want including electric starting, flaps, brakes, tricycle gear, and instruments. I must also mention it successfully meets U.S. Part 103 ultralight regulations. Plus, it is great fun to fly! *** Welcome back to Terry Raber’s brilliant Aerolite 103… literally brilliant in day-glow orange (photo). An amazing value, let me list a few of the standard equipment items: Factory-built; Hirth F-33 engine with electric start & battery; nose fairing & windshield; instruments including airspeed, altimeter, tachometer, EGT, CHT, and clock; electric flaps; steerable nose wheel with suspension; and four-point restraint system (this list does not include everything you get).
AirVenture 2011 Wrap-Up and Summary
Oshkosh 2011 is history. By numerous accounts, this was a vast improvement over 2010 when the comments commonly went, “Well, I had some interest (in my airplane) and I hope to sell one or two… maybe.” This year I had easily 30 conversations revealing either outright positive successful results or varyingly robust mood indicators such as, “Looks like aviation has life in it again.” I heard from sellers and customers and rarely had to solicit their opinions. *** A number of aircraft purveyors said they took cash deposits and wrote firm contracts. I estimate about 30 aircraft sales by this method. Companies like Icon, Flight Design, and Terrafugia sold a large number of future delivery positions (more than 50, more than 60, and “several,” respectively). *** Icon neared or crossed the 500-on-order point, partly by “testing elasticity” in the pre-order market by lowering the A5 seaplane deposit to $2,000 from $5,000.
OshPourri
It’s late, I got heat stroked a bit in the beautiful but intensely sunny day so I’m going to post some pix of some things I saw at the show with short captions and will hope to get back with more details once my feet stop throbbing and my brain temps cool down a bit. *** A beautiful day in Oshkosh. Everybody was catching up on flying after being in the gloom and doom for two days. *** The electric symposium went off well, I assume, although I missed it, had to try and get in a thrice-postponed flight with Remos… which was postponed yet again. Bummer. That’s happening now at 6 am… about 7 hours from now. Yark! *** I had a nice chat with Calin Gologan, the extremely tall creator of the Elektra One that won the Lindbergh LEAP award today. He told me they have achieved a battery storage density improvement that will allow them to make a 500 mile flight in Germany, they hope, this August.
Oshkosh Airventure 2011
After my own Labors of Hercules, I arrived at the EAA Oshkosh Airventure seasonal highpoint event Tuesday mid day. Since it was a beautiful day by anybody’s standards, I decided not to brave the hordes at the show and headed out, once I got settled in my digs for the week, to a lovely little airport named Brennand about 10 minutes northwest of EAA’s Wittman Field show grounds. *** I was in luck with more than just weather: the San Antonio Light Sport Aircraft (SALSA) gang from Texas was there demo-flying its all-composite Pipistrel Virus SW 80/100, tricycle-gear (there’s also a taildragger version), composite touring motorglider. *** The Pipistrel line includes several designs I have admired from afar but not had the opportunity to share air with. *** All that changed when Salsa’s prime mover and shaker Rand Vollmer introduced me to a big, friendly Texican fella named Dave White.
World Aircraft Company Spirit Notches SLSA #120
Way over in Paris a new airplane has arrived just as large numbers of pilots head to Oshkosh for AirVenture. Only this Paris is in Tennessee as reviewed earlier. SLSA #120 Spirit comes from a new company but one whose leader earned his SLSA pedigree gaining four model approvals. That would be Skykits and their STOL variations. All are designs from ICP of Italy (Savannah, plus ADV and VG models of the Savannah). FAA considered them a different models so our SLSA List accepted them as such. Then Skykits brought out the Rampage, their own variation of another ICP design. *** Skykits refined those initial approvals into three birds: Savannah VG with fixed-position leading edge slats accented with vortex generators; Savannah VGW, a larger version of the VG in a wide body form with bubble doors; and Rampage with electrically-deployable leading edge slats trailed by Fowler flaps.
Another Roadable Aircraft Project!
Okay, so no way this is ever going to be a Light Sport aircraft, but this is just too much fun and I had to pass it along. *** Famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan has been at it again, this time with his eclectic take on a flying car that began life as an electric-powered flying testbed. *** Aviation Week’s online blog (also picked up by Wired magazine) shared information released exclusively to it by Rutan’s Scaled Composites company known in recent years for many fantastic projects including Spaceship One and White Knight. *** Called BiPod, the flying car became a crash program, completed in just four months and already in test flight mode. Rutan himself retired in April of this year. *** Model 367 BiPod is characteristically, wonderfully unconventional as have been all of Rutan’s many designs. *** The two-seat, hybrid-electric “roadable” aircraft (mini-rant: I sure hope that term doesn’t replace flying car, which flows off the tongue much more agreeably, don’t you think?), originally conceived as a fast, inexpensive electric aircraft, morphed into a flying car.
Zenith’s CH 701 Kit is Sport Pilot-Ready
Every Light Sport & Ultralight Flying magazine reader has probably heard of off-road vehicles. How about an “off-airport” flying machine? You may not have used the term but you probably know one of the candidates: Zenith Aircraft’s highly functional CH 701.
No one calls the CH 701 the most handsome aircraft in the fleet. That title may be better reserved for sleek carbon fiber jobs. But as a practical aircraft appealing to ultralight enthusiasts, the Chris Heintz design with a 20-year history is head of its class. While the design has not changed much in those two decades, the kit has changed quite a bit to make the builder’s effort easier.
The designs of engineer Chris Heintz have been around a long time, beginning with his early Zipper ultralight-like aircraft. A prolific and versatile creator, his aircraft models have put nearly 3,000 builders in the air. The low-wing CH 601 series is the most popular at better than 60% of all Zenith models followed by more than 700 CH 701’s now flying around the world.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- …
- 67
- Next Page »