Electric Sykorski

[Guest ozzie]

200hp electric helicopter. appearing at Airventure.

 

 

 

[Thalass]

Good luck to them. I wonder what battery chemistry they're using?

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

lithium ion

 

Watt's up at Sikorsky

 

Sikorsky Introduces

 

 

[turboplanner]

Next, we'll see the loops, and upside down lawn mowing and hear that weird sound of blade warp Oz

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

The thing is in a decade or so electric power will be considerd the norm and we will be wondering why we wasted all that money on these so inefficient and expensive to maintain internal combustion engines

 

 

[Thalass]

Damn. I was hoping they were using lithium-air. I want those for my bike! LiFePO4 is great, and all, but Lithium-air will be the game changer.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

that will be the mark2 or 3 version. great thing about improvements in battery technology is that your usable payload increases as the battery gets lighter and duration increases with basically no other changes to the powerplant just out with the old and in with the new.

 

Lithium Air Battery Update | New Energy and Fuel

 

another great thing about electric power is that once they have the componets reliability worked out the number of incidents and accidents should fall dramatically compared to todays ice powerplants. imagine no more broken thru bolts swallowed valve heads and other broken bits that we suffer from today. then on the other hand as one man makes things safer another will find new ways to keep the averages up there.

 

 

[turboplanner]

On the other hand Oz, you'll have to remember to charge the batteries up before you go flying!

 

I've lost a lot of RC Saturdays when I wake up, start assembling all the items on a beautiful calm sunny day, only o have to say Ah ****!

 

 

[Thalass]

Turboplanner:

 

 

It'd be much the same with an aircraft in a hangar, or a parking area with plugs in the ground. Jump out, plug in, walk away.

 

Ozzie: That's the great thing. As long as the voltage is similar, any battery chemistry will do. You'd just have to reprogram the charger for the different profile. So the marginally practical batteries of today can be replaced with something awesome without a great deal of fuss.

 

 

[turboplanner]

I just cannot wait for fuel cell cars and trucks.

 

I've driven electric trucks in Japan and the acceleration is like the push of a Chev 350

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

I was reading somewhere and there is so much info coming on line now about electric power for aviation that it is hard to remember who is posting what and where now, that one company in the US is working with airports to have ready to install recharging zones for the predictied wave of aircraft that will be released over the next decade. these will be similar to those already being installed for electric cars. they will use swipe card systems and will print out how much the batteries needed as well as the charge time and condtion of the power pak.

 

electric vehicles have seamless accecleration. no pause for gear changes. instant max torque. if you have seen the DVD 'who killed the electric car' they show a head to head drag race between the GM electric car and a 911 porshe. the electric car beat it hands down. stupid california EPA set the world back two decades. the DVD is released by sony. well worth watching if you have not seen it.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

Electric cars, planes and helicopters should quickly become cheaper due to the minimal number of moving parts...

 

At least there should be no sudden engine failures from fuel exhaustion, it will be a slow gradual failure!

 

 

[turboplanner]

Just the big fires at present until some new battery technology comes along

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Talk about 'every man and his dog getting into it'

 

Cessna working on electric-powered plane | BrighterEnergy.org

 

 

[Thalass]

Awesome! The more companies working on the battery problem, the quicker lithium-air batteries will become mass produced and thus cheap. :big_grin:

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

High demand will dictact a high price for some years.

 

 

[turboplanner]

You're right Oz, we won't be able to afford them until I-Fly5