How Beat The High Cost Of Fuel: The ElectraFlyer-C

How Beat The High Cost Of Fuel

Randall Fishman, president of Electric Aircraft Corp., flew his
ultralight trike at EAA Airventure 2007, Oshkosh. "I flew the trike
in front of the crowds, and the trike was mobbed with people every
day. The EAA folks really loved the idea." The ElectraFlyer won the
Grand Champion Ultralight and Innovation awards.

This year Fishman hopes to fly his new ElectraFlyer-C (a re-engined
Moni motorglider with an 18-horsepower electric motor) at EAA
Airventure 2008. The ElectraFlyer-C cruises at 70 mph, stalls at 45
mph, and has a top speed of 90 mph and a flight duration of ~1-1/2
hours. The electric motor directly drives a 45-inch ground
adjustable, two-blade PowerFin carbon fiber propeller, which lifts the
aircraft at a climb rate of 500 to 600 fpm. The experimental
amateur-built airplane is currently in its required 40-hour flight
testing phase.
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinqu...cmndfin d.y=5

The motor is powered by a 78 pound, custom-built lithium-ion polymer
battery with a power output of "5.6 kilowatt hours"; projected life is
300 to 500 full discharge cycles or more than 1,000 partial cycles.
The battery can be recharged in as little as two hours using a
220-volt charger (or six hours with a 110-volt charger). The cost for
a full recharge is 70 cents with the 110-volt charger. Fishman says
it's feasible to carry a small 110-volt charger as baggage on
cross-country flights.

More information:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2722498...56704/sizes/o/

http://www.electraflyer.com/electraflyerc.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2722498...7605355156982/

Video: http://www.electraflyer.com/news.html


http://www.aero-news.net/news/sport....e-f146a285a148

On Jun 16, 7:37 pm, Larry Dighera wrote:
How Beat The High Cost Of Fuel

The motor is powered by a 78 pound, custom-built lithium-ion polymer
battery with a power output of "5.6 kilowatt hours"; projected life is
300 to 500 full discharge cycles or more than 1,000 partial cycles.
The battery can be recharged in as little as two hours using a
220-volt charger (or six hours with a 110-volt charger). The cost for
a full recharge is 70 cents with the 110-volt charger. Fishman says
it's feasible to carry a small 110-volt charger as baggage on
cross-country flights.

1 horsepower = .75kw. So 5.6 kilowatt hours is only 7.51 horsepower
hours. Good enough for a short burst to get you to altitude and soar
the thermals, bu you aren't going anywhere cross country.

Compare it to a really inefficient 2 stroke, burning .6 lb/hp-hr.
Your battery is equal to .75 gallons of gas.

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:42:12 -0700 (PDT), Richard Riley
wrote in
:

On Jun 16, 7:37 pm, Larry Dighera wrote:
How Beat The High Cost Of Fuel

The motor is powered by a 78 pound, custom-built lithium-ion polymer
battery with a power output of "5.6 kilowatt hours"; projected life is
300 to 500 full discharge cycles or more than 1,000 partial cycles.
The battery can be recharged in as little as two hours using a
220-volt charger (or six hours with a 110-volt charger). The cost for
a full recharge is 70 cents with the 110-volt charger. Fishman says
it's feasible to carry a small 110-volt charger as baggage on
cross-country flights.

1 horsepower = .75kw. So 5.6 kilowatt hours is only 7.51 horsepower
hours. Good enough for a short burst to get you to altitude and soar
the thermals, bu you aren't going anywhere cross country.

I would say that depends on how much power the aircraft requires for
sustained level flight. If that can be achieved on 5 hp, the battery
will theoretically provide 1.5 hours run time (assuming 100%
efficiency).

Compare it to a really inefficient 2 stroke, burning .6 lb/hp-hr.
Your battery is equal to .75 gallons of gas.

What is the difference in cost between that amount of fuel and the
cost to charger the battery? Noise? Vibration? Reliability? ...

I give Mr. Fishman credit for the success his project has achieved to
date considering its funding and staff.

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:26:06 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:42:12 -0700 (PDT), Richard Riley
wrote in
:

On Jun 16, 7:37 pm, Larry Dighera wrote:
How Beat The High Cost Of Fuel

The motor is powered by a 78 pound, custom-built lithium-ion polymer
battery with a power output of "5.6 kilowatt hours"; projected life is
300 to 500 full discharge cycles or more than 1,000 partial cycles.
The battery can be recharged in as little as two hours using a
220-volt charger (or six hours with a 110-volt charger). The cost for
a full recharge is 70 cents with the 110-volt charger. Fishman says
it's feasible to carry a small 110-volt charger as baggage on
cross-country flights.

1 horsepower = .75kw. So 5.6 kilowatt hours is only 7.51 horsepower
hours. Good enough for a short burst to get you to altitude and soar
the thermals, bu you aren't going anywhere cross country.

I would say that depends on how much power the aircraft requires for
sustained level flight. If that can be achieved on 5 hp, the battery
will theoretically provide 1.5 hours run time (assuming 100%
efficiency).

Compare it to a really inefficient 2 stroke, burning .6 lb/hp-hr.
Your battery is equal to .75 gallons of gas.

What is the difference in cost between that amount of fuel and the
cost to charger the battery? Noise? Vibration? Reliability? ...

I give Mr. Fishman credit for the success his project has achieved to
date considering its funding and staff.

Larry
the technology does have a way to go.
my tailwind requires 74hp to cruise at 120 knots.
it takes me two days to fly across australia.
when the boy's efforts can achieve that he'll have a market.
I'd suggest not before.

he is on one of the right tracks though. we need a carbon free fuel
into the future and that means hydrogen or electrons at the moment.
Stealth Pilot

"Stealth Pilot" wrote in message ...

he is on one of the right tracks though. we need a carbon free fuel
into the future and that means hydrogen or electrons at the moment.
Stealth Pilot

This, or similar, is key to flying 'green':
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/...80403a_nr.html

"Stealth Pilot" wrote in message
...
my tailwind requires 74hp to cruise at 120 knots.
it takes me two days to fly across australia.

Of course, the typical light airplane flight probably does not even involve
X-country flight. A 2-hour electric airplane would be just fine for the typical
1 to 1.5 hour training mission. Of course, that same plane would need to be
ready to fly the next training student/renter within 20 or 30 minutes. Given
what we know about today's battery technology, time required for recharging may
be a big problem.

Vaughn

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:52:16 GMT, "Vaughn Simon"
wrote in
:


"Stealth Pilot" wrote in message
.. .
my tailwind requires 74hp to cruise at 120 knots.
it takes me two days to fly across australia.

Of course, the typical light airplane flight probably does not even involve
X-country flight. A 2-hour electric airplane would be just fine for the typical
1 to 1.5 hour training mission. Of course, that same plane would need to be
ready to fly the next training student/renter within 20 or 30 minutes. Given
what we know about today's battery technology, time required for recharging may
be a big problem.

Vaughn


Fortunately, in that service multiple battery packs could be used to
overcome down time due to recharging.

True for chemical batteries but EEStor devices store energy as an
electrostatic charge. If their press is to be believed, they have 10 - 100x
the capacity per pound as lithium ion. Even with lithium chemistry, silicon
nanowire anodes from Stanford promise 10x the charge.

Electric power is a fast moving target these days. Who is to say what might
be possible. Don't write it off too quickly.



"Bryan Martin" wrote in message
...
One major problem with battery powered electric systems is that all the
reactants must be carried onboard. This puts them at a major
disadvantage with fuel burning systems. An aircraft with a fuel burning
engine only has to carry its fuel onboard, the oxidizer is pulled out of
the air. This give a fuel burning engine a major weight and range
advantage over a battery powered electric system.

--
Bryan Martin
N61BM, CH 601 XL, Ram Subaru, Stratus redrive.

In rec.aviation.piloting Bill Daniels bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:
True for chemical batteries but EEStor devices store energy as an
electrostatic charge. If their press is to be believed, they have 10 - 100x
the capacity per pound as lithium ion. Even with lithium chemistry, silicon
nanowire anodes from Stanford promise 10x the charge.

EEStor's claim's are a little too good to be believed by anyone that
knows anything about capacitors, and that's being charitable.

Time will tell if their product matches their press releases.

One problem with using capacitors for energy storage for stuff like
motors is the discharge curve which will require some rather heavy
voltage conversion trickery, though the problem isn't that big a deal
for a ground vehicle.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

Richard Riley wrote:

On Jun 16, 7:37 pm, Larry Dighera wrote:

How Beat The High Cost Of Fuel

The motor is powered by a 78 pound, custom-built lithium-ion polymer
battery with a power output of "5.6 kilowatt hours"; projected life is
300 to 500 full discharge cycles or more than 1,000 partial cycles.
The battery can be recharged in as little as two hours using a
220-volt charger (or six hours with a 110-volt charger). The cost for
a full recharge is 70 cents with the 110-volt charger. Fishman says
it's feasible to carry a small 110-volt charger as baggage on
cross-country flights.


1 horsepower = .75kw. So 5.6 kilowatt hours is only 7.51 horsepower
hours. Good enough for a short burst to get you to altitude and soar
the thermals, bu you aren't going anywhere cross country.

Compare it to a really inefficient 2 stroke, burning .6 lb/hp-hr.
Your battery is equal to .75 gallons of gas.

Wait a second...5.6 KWH doesn't really tell you how much HP it is, does
it? All it says is that it consumes 5.6KW in an hour. If you only ran
the motor for 5 minutes per hours, the HP would be 12 times that or
approx. 90 HP. Using KW HOURS doesn't tell the whole story. Running a
100W light bulb 10 hours uses 1 KWH and so does running a 500W bulb for
2 hours but the 500W bulb does more work at any instant in time (it's a
lot brighter!). Now, if that motor was rated at 5.6KW, then yes, I'd
agree it is about 7.5 HP.

Scott