Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Electric / hybrid aircraft propulsion (NOT cars)

Funny how most “big drone” dreamers start out by flying their machines in a box for many many hours, these guys seems to put a guy in it very early and start doing aerobatics at low level.

I like them. Bit of a contrast to all aviation we are used to.

ESSZ, Sweden

Another new electric aircraft project from the Vendee. This time the project is being led by one of the skippers of the Vendee Globe yacht race Raphael Dinelli.
The project is named Eraole and is aimed at flight schools and clubs.
If you Google Eraole if its of interest.

France

Fly310 wrote:

Bit of a contrast to all aviation we are used to.

Not to me. I have never been involved in drones, but it’s the same “no limits” and “can do” environment combined with pure enthusiasm that I remember for RC flying (30-40 years ago) and the experimental homebuilt “environment” I am doing today. Although, once you have to sit in it yourself, things gets a whole lot more “real and personal” of course There is no way it will work without focusing on safety.

What is aviation anyway? Is it transport, is it some type of “aerial work”, is it recreation, is it weapons ? It’s all of those things of course. Drones, including electric battery operated ones, have since long been used by the military, in recreation and some type of aerial work. It’s the transport part that is lagging behind for obvious reasons, and in particularly transportation of people.

While using drones for transportation is a conceivable thing, it doesn’t mean it is a thing worth using a single brain cell to actually make happen. Transportation has it’s own requirements. The main being getting from A to B as cheap as possible and with minimum hassle. While the hassle part is kind of solvable from a technical point of view (in theory at least), the “cheap as possible” part clearly is not. They would have to be some semi to fully autonomous things with an insane amount of power per kg.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

The ANN report:
“A drone capable of carrying a person and performing aerobatics has been built and flown by Drone Champions AG as a way to promote its Drone Champions League video game.
The DCL has released a video of the drone flying in Croatia. While the aircraft is designed to carry a person, that person is not the pilot. The aircraft is intended to be flown from the ground.”

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Maoraigh wrote:

The DCL has released a video of the drone flying in Croatia. While the aircraft is designed to carry a person, that person is not the pilot. The aircraft is intended to be flown from the ground.”

That makes no sense. Who would sit in an aircraft that somebody else is flying from the ground?

But, if the article means that particular drone in the video, than they are correct as far as I can see. This particular drone is built to test if it is capable of doing aerobatics while carrying a person. At least that is what they are testing at the moment. As the CEO explained at the start. Their “mission” is that people can first play the game, then move on to real drones, then as a final step, they can fly the drone themselves.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

That could better be achieved using a standard crash test dummy. (Although at greater cost than using a risk seeking volunteer, excluding later liability costs if they survived or had dependants.)

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

A MagniX eCaravan made its first flight yesterday. So far it can only take 5 passengers, but by the end of 2021 the developers are planning to get the system certified with next-generation batteries and increase the capacity to 9. The power controller is designed to support different types of batteries and uses four busses for redundancy. Compared to the PT6, the new powerplant is a lot less noisy, allegedly producing less noise in the cockpit than the C182 chase plane flying nearby. More here.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

LeSving wrote:

That makes no sense. Who would sit in an aircraft that somebody else is flying from the ground?

Many would. Certainly, autonomous aircraft will carry passengers, but not likely controlled by someone on the ground.

I expect that to be common before the end of this century at the latest. There are driverless buses and trains operating commercially today. Cars are close but not fully accepted or technologically quite ready yet.

When the Wright Bros made their first flight, nobody would ever have considered flying as a paying passenger. It wasn’t long before pilots were charging passengers for barnstorming and the first commercial airlines were operating shortly thereafter. Eliminating the pilot is the next logical step. It’s just taken a while for technology to make it feasible. People can adjust to just about any idea, given time.

LSZK, Switzerland

There is no doubt these electric Caravans can work – for ~ 10 minute legs and with some good alternates.

It would be interesting how the other aspect of the financial equation works out: if you want to fly continuously, or even several times a day, you will need a number of these planes so the others can be on charge.

It would not even reach the Scilly Isles from Land’s End… but there are other shorter profiles around the place.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Harbour Air is a going concern, and I’m certain they have figured out the financials and practicality for their scope:
Harbour Air and the future of electric flying

30 minute legs and 20-30 minute recharge allows a commercial operation. Their latest blog entry indicates that they are finding enhanced range performance:
Project update Apr 2020

LSZK, Switzerland
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top