NASA Awards Personal Air Vehicle Prizes

[Larry Dighera]

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NASA AWARDS "PERSONAL AIR VEHICLE" PRIZES
(http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/934-full.html#195921)
NASA over the weekend awarded $250,000 to participants in the Personal
Air Vehicle competition (), which promotes the use of personal
aircraft for fast, safe, efficient, affordable, environmentally
friendly and comfortable on-demand transportation. Four teams competed
at the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in California. The
$100,000 Vantage Prize went to Vance Turner of Rescue, Calif., owner
of a modified short-wing Pipistrel piloted by Michael Coates of
Australia. The Pipistrel also won top prizes for efficiency and
short-runway performance, and second place for speed, for another
$60,000 in prize money. Coates told CNet News () the airplane is the
"Prius of airplanes" because it can go as fast as 170 mph and get 50
mpg.
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Pipistrel motorglider cruises at 115 knots and 3.5 gph:

http://www.mcp.com.au/pipistrel-usa/

Pricing:
http://www.mcp.com.au/pipistrel-usa/price-list/price-sinus.html

Video:
http://www.ultralightflyer.com/airventure_05/pipistrel-motorglider.html

Sinus and Virus composite motor gliders.

Richard Mudd of Pipistrel U.S.A. had the Virus (pronounced Vear-us)
and the Sinus (pronounced Sin-us) motor gliders on display at
Airventure.

The planes which are manufactured in Slovenia are available as light
sport aircraft or as 200 to 400 hour build kits.

The planes are constructed using the same composite materials used in
certified gliders. Each aircraft is certified and test flown in
Slovenia before being disassembled and packaged into a 40 foot sea
container for the month long trip to the USA. Once in the U.S. the
craft are then reassembled, and test flown by the U.S. distributor,
and then under the new Light Sport Aircraft category can be delivered
ready to fly to the customer.

When powered by the Rotax 912 engine the Sinus has a range of around
650 nautical miles with the standard fuel tanks. With the engine
turned off the Sinus has a glide ratio of around 30:1, when the
propeller is feathered to 90 degrees.

The Sinus utilizes side by side seating, dual three axis stick and
rudder controls, with flaperons, air brakes are located on the top of
each wing. Cruise comes in at 115 knots at 4800 rpm.

The Sinus and Virus are available in both a tri-cycle gear and tail
dragger configuration.

Currently over 160 craft are flying.

For more information contact:
Pipistrel U.S.A. PO Box 2010
Moriarty New Mexico
87035
505-269-8234

[Phil]

On Aug 17, 5:07 pm, Larry Dighera > wrote:

The Sinus and Virus are available in both a tri-cycle gear and tail
dragger configuration.

Nice airplanes. But I have to say that the names they chose leave a
lot to be desired. It's hard to believe someone could achieve it, but
these names are even worse than "SkyCatcher".

[Larry Dighera]

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:25:22 -0700, Phil > wrote
in . com>:

>On Aug 17, 5:07 pm, Larry Dighera > wrote:
>
> The Sinus and Virus are available in both a tri-cycle gear and tail
>dragger configuration.

Right. Their also available as kits, fast-build kits, and fully
built, I believe.

>Nice airplanes. But I have to say that the names they chose leave a
>lot to be desired.

In this era of rapid globalization, we can expect a lot more of that
sort of thing. The names are probably quite respectable to those
whose native tongue is Yugoslavian, but I'm not sure what ATC would
make of them. :)

>It's hard to believe someone could achieve it, but
>these names are even worse than "SkyCatcher".

But the aircraft seem superior in performance and price to Cessna's
LSA vaporware!

[Larry Dighera]

On Sat, 18 Aug 2007 13:26:26 GMT, Larry Dighera >
wrote in >:

>Their

Obviously that should have been 'they're.'

[Jim Logajan]

Phil > wrote:
> On Aug 17, 5:07 pm, Larry Dighera > wrote:
>
> > The Sinus and Virus are available in both a tri-cycle gear and tail
> > dragger configuration.
>
> Nice airplanes. But I have to say that the names they chose leave a
> lot to be desired. It's hard to believe someone could achieve it, but
> these names are even worse than "SkyCatcher".

Kitplanes magazine had an article on the Sinus and Virus in its October
2005 edition. The origin of the names were covered in the first paragraph
of that article:

"First thing first - why, exactly, is this airplane called the Sinus? And
its sibling, the Virus? Can’t wait to hear the marketing scheme behind
these gems. Well, bizarre as they may sound, there is logic behind the
names. Sinus (actually pronounced SEE-noose) is the German word for sine,
as in sine wave - OK smarty, it’s actually Latin, but the German language
(like English) still uses some Latin words, especially in scientific lingo.
When the Pipistrel folks saw the reaction of the English-speaking world to
Sinus, there was not much to do but admit defeat and call the next one, the
short-wing version, the Virus."

The complete article is available online to subscribers at this URL:

http://www.kitplanes.com/issues/pdfs/1005-1520.pdf

As motorgliders they look like great choices. One has even traveled around
the world:

http://www.mcp.com.au/pipistrel-usa/extreme/extreme-flights.html