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I have been trying to do some calculations of how much battery power
would be needed to keep a hang glider flying level. With some help I arrived at about 1 or 2 kW (a few horse power) for a typical hang glider with 10:1 glide ratio and 180 pound (80 kg) pilot. As a comparison, gasoline engines for hang gliders are 10 kW and give 1 - 2 m/s climb for half an hour on 4 litres of fuel. I am unable to find electric versions of those powered harnesses being sold. Looking around for battery prices I found this site: http://www.hobby-lobby.com/flightpower.htm . The last battery on the page is 22.2 V, 7.4 Ah = 164 kWh. I thought it may be interesting to see how they would hold up when powering a human aircraft. Each battery weighs 500 grams so with 10 batteries it would be a 5 kg pack. The cost would be $500 * 10 batteries = $5000. Electric motor with propeller and harness may weigh 10 or 15 kg on top of that, I am unsure and would like to know figures. I have tried to find out but am unsure of some of the terminology for electric engines. Also I do not know if you can just attach a propeller to any old electric engine. So it appears from my very rough calculations that you can achieve around 3 kW for half an hour of flight, for $5000 and 5 kg of batteries. Is this an unrealistic base line for me to use, before adding the weight of battery heat insulation and other things? |
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