Electric Plane - Transatlantic Flight

numl0ck

numl0ck

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EV flyer Long-ESA has started high-speed taxi tests on its quest to become the first electric airplane to cross the Atlantic. Using a Long-EZ kit plane designed by Burt Rutan as a platform for the volts-only powertrain, the Flight of the Century project is the brainchild of electric enthusiast Chip Yates, who already holds the speed record of 190MPH on an EV motorcycle. The developer's plan is to use a fleet of five drones to dock with the main Long-ESA ship and exchange batteries in mid-air, giving it enough juice to make the trip. Successful ground trials should lead to flight tests later this month, with the transatlantic attempt slated for 2014, followed by EV airplane speed and altitude attempts, to boot. It remains to be seen if the complex plan might result in commercial electric aviation as Yates predicts -- but judging by the video after the break it'll be fun to watch them try.
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http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/17/electric-plane-taxi-test-long-esa/
http://www.flightofthecentury.com/long-esa/
 
Exchange batteries mid-air?! FIVE times?! I want to see how they're going to do that. Would be some interesting engineering. Hopefully they're not planning to eject the spent batteries overboard.
 
It reminds me of that Guinness Book of World Records record(?) that someone did in a single-Cessna. Refueled mid-air, and sent food down via a bucket. I forgot how long they were up there, but it was somewhere around 24 hours.
 
Sometimes I wonder how useful it is to prove you can fly a small plane cross country without stopping. Lots of work. Lots of planning and training and after you do it, what?
No one is going to buy a cessna because it was flown cross country w/o stopping. They probably will buy it because pilots regularly fly them long distances, with proper safety and rest, and get there in one piece.
 
numl0ck said:
It reminds me of that Guinness Book of World Records record(?) that someone did in a single-Cessna. Refueled mid-air, and sent food down via a bucket. I forgot how long they were up there, but it was somewhere around 24 hours.
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I think these guys may have that beat...from Wikipedia:

On December 4, 1958 Robert Timm and John Cook took off from McCarran Airfield, Las Vegas, NV in N9172B. Sixty-four days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 5 seconds later, they landed back at McCarran Airfield on February 4, 1959. The flight was part of a fund-raising effort for the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund. Food and water were transferred by matching speeds with a chase car on a straight stretch of road in the desert, and hoisting the supplies aboard with a rope and bucket. Fuel was taken on by hoisting a hose from a fuel truck up to the aircraft, filling an auxiliary belly tank installed for the flight, pumping that fuel into the aircraft's regular tanks, and then filling the belly tank again. The drivers steered while a second person matched speeds with the aircraft with his foot on the vehicle's accelerator pedal.

Engine oil was added by means of a tube from the cabin that was fitted to pass through the firewall. Only the pilot's seat was installed. The remaining space was used for a pad on which the relief pilot slept. The right cabin door was replaced with an easy-opening, accordion-type door to allow supplies and fuel to be hoisted aboard. Early in the flight, the engine-driven electric generator failed. A Champion wind-driven generator (turned by a small propeller) was hoisted aboard, taped to the wing support strut, and plugged into the cigarette lighter socket; it served as the aircraft's source of electricity for the rest of the flight. The pilots decided to end the marathon flight because with 1,558 hours of continuously running the engine during the record-setting flight, plus several hundred hours already on the engine beforehand (considerably in excess of its normal overhaul interval), the engine's power output had deteriorated to the point that they were barely able to climb away after refueling. The aircraft is on display in the passenger terminal at McCarran International Airport. Photos and details of the record flight can be seen in a small museum on the upper level of the baggage claim area.
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Florida Cracker said:
Sometimes I wonder how useful it is to prove you can fly a small plane cross country without stopping. Lots of work. Lots of planning and training and after you do it, what?
No one is going to buy a cessna because it was flown cross country w/o stopping. They probably will buy it because pilots regularly fly them long distances, with proper safety and rest, and get there in one piece.
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It's more for marketing than anything else. "Look what our plane is capable of! Don't you wish you had one like this one?"
 
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