Looks like motor technology and battery technology have finally evolved to the point where electric planes will be viable. With a few hour charge this electric airplane will give you 1 hour of flight time. The 75 volt battery pack delivers 200A of current to lift off and a full charge takes about $0.75 of electricity!
"We have converted my single place, all metal Moni motor glider into a small, efficient electric airplane. We used our ElectraFlyer propulsion parts kit and our large battery pack, custom built to fit the available space in the airplane. The plane was raised for more ground clearance and a larger, slower-turning, much more efficient prop was installed. Static thrust has increased 60%. The plane received its airworthiness certificate in April. The ElectraFlyer-C is flying now and the climb rate has increased dramatically. The flying character of the plane has changed from a very loud, vibrating experience to a smooth quiet ride."
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WANT!!
Imagine winch-launching that sucker with a full charge and draining the packs chasing thermals and soaring all over the place for the better part of a day. Man, now that would be fun.
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So for significantly less than the cost of a new car, you can build an electric airplane with 60-90 minute flight time. Perhaps electric helicopters could be the flying car we were supposed to have by now. (I think a helicopter would be more suited to that purpose since they don’t require a runway.)
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cool but 60minutes of flying it is not to little time for having time for fun in the sky
i guess it is only start
3hours will be cool
6 will be super cool
10 super buper cool
and i do not think cockpit is comfortable
and instruments look to simple
no autopilot
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I want one. How much?
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Does look like fun, but surely I can’t be the only one to think that completely covering the wings * body with flexible solar panels would give you a bit more airtime?
On the subject of swapping over combustion for battery power, one of the victims of this changover will be animals on the roads, if the animal can’t hear the car/van in time it’ll become the vehicle’s latest hood ornament.
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Hey mikheil…. don’t be overly critical… this is a prototype… an object made to prove it could be done. Given time and advances in the production and tech of the battery… this could become a viable power source for light aircraft.
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Yea, you could put solar cells on it… but they’re dismayingly weak. You’d probably get a better watt/dollar ratio by putting a pedal powered dynamo in it…
… which (if you imagine how hard you’d have to pedal to spin a prop to get you airborne) might give an indication of how much power the battery is kicking out. $8500 dollars worth of battery is a lot of battery.
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seeing as how I run my cell phone and laptop battery completely down every day because I’m not paying attention, you can count me out on flying this plane. Of course, I’ve run my car out of gas a few times too, so I should just stick to flying coach or staying grounded. Very cool that the technology has caught up to the demand though.
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mikheil, when it comes to this kind of ultralight flying, no one wants a glass cockpit out of a 787, its more enjoyable to be able to feel it.
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mitch i understand it is not suppose to be like 787
but 747 would ok 😀
autopilot would be cool to enjoy looking left and right