Dear pilot-friends,
mainly interesting discussion, despite using it as hey-mower, which is not worth to be discussed.
Beginning with Lilienthal, Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Students of Darmstadt, Horten brothers, Wernher von Braun, Bertrand Piccard, just to name a few of earlier "fools", the time they presented their ideas, the overall laughter was assured "it never works!!!"
Most of those visionary aviators succeeded, some of them sure payed with their life for the idea.
Just because time was not ready for the idea at that time, material or production knowledge not yet available.
Would anybody had believed 80 years ago, man ever could fly to the moon and take a walk at its surface? To build a huge and heavy craft like a B747 or an A380?
Or 10 years ago, to build an electric powered twin-trainer like the Pipistrel, operated by quick-change battery-units small enough to fit in an ultralight trainer carrying two people and enabling flight training lasting 45 minutes?
Or the Airbus E-Van, a twin-trainer 550 kg empty-weight, max-speed 220km/h, battery-power at the moment just 40 minutes, but they are convinced of longer lasting batteries for the near future.
Sure nobody would have believed in all those "foolish ideas" 10, 20 or even 50 years ago. All of those foolish ideas came true. They are reality these days.
@ Even
Not being able to glide or autorotate is the worst case for any aircraft of course. Could be loosing an elevator or part of a wing, destruction of the free-wheeling clutch of a chopper or loosing a blade. All of this sure happened in the past - death trap as someone called it. The pilot of the Volocopter still has a last chance by activating its BRS and touch the ground safely, while a common chopper just falls out of the sky like a stone.
@ Herb and Dan
Iīm fully convinced, we will have those battery density 2, maybe not in yours or my lifetime, but sometime later. Who cares about that? We already have fully electric-driven airplanes like the Sunseaker with battery and additional solar-cells at top of the wings, so they easily do cross-country flights.
Or the Solar Impulse of Bertrand Piccard, who does a flight around the world without a single drop of fuel, just by solar-power. Not yet compleated, but non-stop five days and 5 nights in the air, thats grate, thats future and thats not a simple ultralight by weight and wingspan!
Take a look at Dean Siglerīs fantastic website "http://blog.cafefoundation.org/". A scientist-based highly qualified website, where you can see whatīs possibly already and what scientists all over the world are working at and what they think about future possibilities in battery-density - thinks like that.
Or check the websites of NASA, what scientists and students develop at research-places like the Armstrong Research Center:
http://www.nasa.gov/aero/students-el...rplane-designs
High Voltage Hybrid ElectricPropulsion:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstron..._showcase.html
Great scientific visions I believe in to become true and sincerely hope to see one or the other getting true in my time of life.
Best regards from Germany
Klaus