AviationBanter - View Single Post - How Beat The High Cost Of Fuel: The ElectraFlyer-C

**Dylan Smith** · June 25th 08, 03:57 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting,rec.aviation.homebuilt

On 2008-06-24, wrote:
Batteries have been under development for well over a hundred years.

But not all batteries are equal.

I have a small radio controlled helicopter. It has full cyclic and
collective pitch controls, tail rotor, etc. It runs off a battery, and
this helicopter would have not been practical just 20 years ago. What
made it practical is the lithium polymer battery, and making the
electronics to control a small but very powerful brushless motor small
enough and light enough. Everything else could have been built 20 years
ago (the main rotor blades are wooden and the PPM receiver is old hat).

It took about 15 years for the LiPoly battery to go from the lab to a
widely available commercial technology. In the lab, they've increased
the LiPoly battery's energy density by an order of magnitude (so based
on past performance, it'll be 15-20 years before we get to see this in
the shops).

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
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