Electric Flight

Gary --  Here are two links that may be of interest to you:

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/07/espyder/ 

http://yuneeccouk.site.securepod.com/ 

I don't have the specs you asked about, but hopefully one of the Flightstar or Yuneec people will put a reply on this thread. You could also send an email with your questions to one of the companies.

I'd enjoy knowing more about your experiences and interests in electric aircraft. If you want to connect on that topic, please send an email to me -- bwaldron@eaa.org.

Thanks,

Bob Waldron

Has anyone seen photos or videos of Randal Fishman's new electric airplane?

you mean he built something since the Moni he had last year?

[edited] Yes, he had a new 2 seat aircraft on display in the Aviation Learning Center - - -http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/07/an-electric-airplane-with-room-for-two/

Hi Gary

Sorry for delayed reply to your request but every time I went to sign up to 365 I was informed my EAA membership had expired. Anyway sorted now.

I am away in the morning and so doing this last thing 10.40pm, so do not have info on the flightstar to hand. Please contact my associate Paul Arthy at paul@yuneec.co.uk and he will be pleased to help.

Re: e430. Yes we do make everything in house except for the battery cells. Howvever, we do make up our own battery packs. We have 5 different vendors and are very selective about the cells we use. All are tested for similar characteristics - all 54 of them per pack.

Yuneec does all its own design and production however, we do use consultants from Europe and the USA for certain key assistance like light weight composite structures and all the structural calculations etc.

So, all the main items, complete airframe, motor, motor controller, batteries, charger and all software (this balances all 54 cells per pack (for E-PAC) to +/- 5Mv and will do 108 cells per pack for the e430.

Please take a look at the website www.yuneec.com for more details and soon info on the motor systems , such as the 20KW (27HP) used on the E-Spyder, will be on there as well.

Anymore info required while I am away please email Paul.

Best Regards

Clive M. Coote

Managing Director

Yuneec International

Clive,

Thanks for the response, I will be contacting Paul.

My "other" EAA (the Electric Auto Association) is a bunch of people converting cars to electric and some have had bad luck with the early ThunderSky batteries.  They seem to have sorted out their quality issues and now others are trying SkyEnergy, Headway and HighPower.  This is very expensive gambling for homebuilders since a batch of lithium batteries can easily be $10K+ and it's a long process to get any here in the U.S.  I was hoping you could share your experiences with the various battery companies and point us experimenters in the right direction. 

Thanks,

Gary Krysztopik

Pelican PL w/Stratus EA-81

ZW2 electric street trike

www.ZWheelz.com

Here's a forum thread about electric aircraft on a website about EEStor.

http://theeestory.com/topics/2993

If you aren't familiar with EEStor, they are said to be developing a revolutionary type of capacitor. The company website is under construction, but you can read about EEStor on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEStor

Bob W.

Sept 2009 AOPA has a one page article that mentions the electric motor is $4000?

Depending on battery cost and weight, this could be very promising.  I would like to build a tandem seat motor glider, and this sounds very attractive.

Clive,

Sorry if I am asking a question that might have been already been addressed on your website.  If it has, feel free to lash me with a wet noodle!

Does the Yuneec motor controller "regenerate" power from a windmilling propeller?  If so, is this an opportunity to use the motor as a speed break during descent, and partly recharge the batteries during landings?

Thanks,

Ried Jacobsen