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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Australia's first electric aircraft has begun test flights at Perth's Jandakot Airport, amid hopes the plane will be flying to nearby Rottnest Island within months.
The two-seater single-engine Pipistrel Alpha Electro has two batteries that can keep the plane in the air for an hour, with an extra 30 minutes in reserve.
The team behind the plane says while there are environmental benefits in doing away with jet fuel, electric planes are also safer and easier to fly.
"Electric propulsion is a lot simpler than a petrol engine," Electro.Aero founder Joshua Portlock said. "Inside a petrol engine you have hundreds of moving parts. "In this aircraft you have one switch to turn the aircraft on and one throttle lever to fly."
The engine is powered by two lithium-ion batteries, similar to those used in the Tesla electric car. There is no gear box or multiple moving engine parts —instead the plane's motor attaches directly to the propeller. Rather than a fuel gauge, a panel tells the pilot the amount of power left in the battery, and estimated minutes of flight time, based on the throttle position.
The batteries are re-energised in about an hour by a supercharger based at the Jandakot airfield.
[...] In mid-January Mr Bodley will begin training local pilots to fly the single-engine electric plane, with registered pilots required to complete a familiarisation flight before flying solo.
Mr Portlock said the group had held discussions with the Rottnest Island Authority to install a supercharger to tap into its solar array, allowing pilots to fly the plane to the island.
Future plans include electric air-taxis capable of carrying up to five people to the holiday destination.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday January 08 2018, @02:20AM (7 children)
This is a toy. An hour of flying time? You can literally buy toys that can fly that long. One passenger? Good luck turning a profit with that. They will play with it off and on, you won't "see it in the skies" anywhere in commercial aviation service. I would say they were at least getting experience for a future when we have batteries good enough but really, we don't NEED to learn anything. We know how to make a single engine prop job, we know how to build an electric motor (hint: Tesla, etc.) and the hard parts are essentially unchanged. The hard part of a plane is the control surfaces, cockpit, aviation electronics, etc. incorporating a century of knowledge of the thousands of ways they can go wrong and kill you.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MostCynical on Monday January 08 2018, @03:25AM (3 children)
http://www.rottnestisland.com/the-island/getting-here/By%20Air [rottnestisland.com]
It is a twelve minute flight, so think of this as a fancy, exclusive, air-taxi.
There isobviously demand for flights this short (and likely many places like this in the world)
Quiet, sometimes silent, different. All things that might appeal to well-heeled tourists.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Monday January 08 2018, @04:10AM
They might as well have used a catapult, them bastards!
I mean... look... is in bad taste to do contrary with what jmorris have decreed... even if the entire world functions mostly contrary with his assertions - it only to shows how much bad taste exists in this world.
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 08 2018, @03:08PM
The near-silent aspect is one worth mentioning - this could extend viable operation hours, get access to airfields otherwise closed to commercial traffic, etc.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday January 08 2018, @04:01PM
A prop is never quiet if it is pulling any power.
And the article sucked! "has begun test flights." - Pix or vids! or GTFO! And when they do finally make that video, I want to hear the natural sound, not some lame background promotional music.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday January 08 2018, @05:09AM (2 children)
Now, if you can stick it in a sailplane, something with a huge surface area that doesn't actually need power to stay in the air, and you might have something really intriguing. A glider that can launch and land under it's own power, get a boost as needed to more easily navigate thermals, and spend the rest of it's time recharging as it glides. Wouldn't be the fastest thing in the air, but it would be one hell of a toy. And potentially a valuable surveying/research tool as well.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Fnord666 on Monday January 08 2018, @12:48PM (1 child)
Something like this [front-electric-sustainer.com]? This is just a sustainer however and doesn't enable powered takeoffs.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday January 09 2018, @04:28AM
Quite. With the added benefit of having the fuel tank constantly (slowly) refill as you glide. And self-powered takeoffs would certainly add a great deal.