Greenwing Electric Ultralight On Sale - US$40K

[Head in the clouds]

Greenwings have released the first 50 for sale -

 

eSpyder

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Any links to the REAL plane?

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Any links to the REAL plane?

See link in first column - orders being taken from last Monday at Airventure -

 

Greenwing International

 

 

[Downunder]

Price isabit rich I think..........

 

For a Single seat rag and tube.....

 

 

[rankamateur]

Always more environmentally acceptable to use electricity, with it's carbon footprints all over somebody elses backyard.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

very quiet, good for nervous home owners

 

 

[Marty_d]

Price isabit rich I think..........For a Single seat rag and tube.....

Especially since you still have to assemble it yourself!!

 

 

[dazza 38]

The price is twenty grand too much I reckon.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

The main comment here and on other forums is the price is too much, I'd agree with Dazza's take on it, it's about double what I'd think it ought to be, for what it is. I think it looks quite nicely done though.

 

So if it was half the price how many folks here would buy one? You'd -

 

Have quiet 60-90 minute flights

 

Recharge in 3 hrs (and/or have a second battery pack)

 

Be a bit of a novelty being the first with an electric plane

 

Theoretically have reliability as good as a turbine engine - so would that change your flying habits? Safer over tiger country, less worry about EFATO etc

 

Probably learn more about efficient flying, using ridge lift, cloud streets, thermalling etc to extend your endurance and/or range

 

Have very cheap running costs

 

Have virtually no maintenance costs

 

Have no engine rebuild costs

 

Have to replace the battery pack each 1000hrs or so (that might be 5-10yrs)

 

How about a syndicate buying one and each syndicate member has their own battery pack?

 

Comments?

 

 

[Marty_d]

I think electric is the way of the future. As for the fossil fuels being used to produce the electricity, like the CSIRO bloke said on that Dick Smith show the other night - all their cars are charged using renewable energy produced by PV solar.

 

Hangars have large roof areas and Australia is sunny. Work it out...

 

 

[Marty_d]

As for the price... the first models of anything are way over priced. I remember seeing one of the first plasma TV's in Aus, the price tag for that was $40,000 too! As volume increases and technology improves, both solar panels and battery packs will come down in price. It'll get to the stage where the advantages of electric that HITC mentioned - lower maintenance, higher reliability, low running costs etc, will outweigh the power and range advantages of petrol.

 

Just look at R/C - when I was flying models as a teenager, electrics were almost unheard of. We used to laugh at the occasional enthusiast who would get their 3 minute flight and then sit around for an hour while they recharged. Now it seems that the electrics have pretty much taken over, and it's the die-hard petrol heads with oil-slicked hands struggling with power panel, needle valve and chicken stick to start their recalcitrant engines that are the dying breed!

 

 

[rankamateur]

Can you cover the roof of a hanger for $40000, that makes $80000, looks like a lot of potential for a price drop before it will take on.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Can you cover the roof of a hanger for $40000, that makes $80000, looks like a lot of potential for a price drop before it will take on.

I don't really think using solar panels to recharge the battery pack is a sensible option except in the rare cases where you don't have power to the hangar, and in that case about $5K of panels should do the job and give you the ability to fly around a remote cattle station, for example, without ever having to worry about fuel logistics, and it would be an absolute god-send and bargain to some folks on remote stations.

 

If you do have power to your hangar the most it could possibly cost for a full re-charge from the grid power would be about $1.50 (and probably a fraction of that)* so it wouldn't be worth thinking about solar panels.

 

*Based on the max power draw from a standard 240V ac circuit being 2kW and power at 23c/kWhr and a recharge time of max 3hrs. More likely the power draw would be around 750W and so a re-charge would cost about 50c. Therefore, based on zero maintenance to the electric motor and one hour flight time per charge, total running costs for the first thousand hours flying would be only $500!

 

After one thousand hours you would need a new set of fabrics (say $3000) and a new battery pack (say $3000) and that makes the ongoing running costs around $6.50 per hour - very cheap flying indeed.

 

Compare that with a similar airframe with an MZ34 of similar 30hp power costing $3070. The MZ burns about 10l/hr ($16/hr) plus 2T oil ($1/hr) and would need two complete rebuilds plus a replacement in 1000hrs ($6000 min) plus air filters etc ($??) plus fuel supply logistics (hardly ever factored into running costs $???) and you'd still need to replace the fabrics every 1000hrs ($3000). So even ignoring those unknown costs ($???) the same plane with the cheapest IC engine would cost $26 per hour or around four times as much as the electric plane of the same horsepower.

 

Interestingly the 32hp electric motor is 7kg lighter than the 30hp MZ34 - 12kg vs 19kg.

 

 

[winsor68]

It would be nice if it was LSA... Would make sense even at that price to put one online at your school...

 

 

[facthunter]

Not having any real noise and vibration would be a good experience. A more efficient aircraft would enhance the range as you could slope soar with low power . Power would be much more reliable. Less chance of fire. I think having one would attract a bit of business. Multi engine should be simplified.. Nev

 

 

[winsor68]

Less chance of fire. Nev

Still not sure about this...in my time flying RC models only twice have I seen an onboard fire...both of them electric...

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Still not sure about this...in my time flying RC models only twice have I seen an onboard fire...both of them electric...

Yes, but with Lithium Ion batteries, not Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. LiFePO4 batteries are non-toxic and non-flammable.

 

2

 

 

[fly_tornado]

electric planes look like a decent alternative to small 2 strokes. google egull 2000 thundergull

 

 

[Gforce]

I have been following the progress of the Espyder from Day one as I have a real desire to introduce electric aircraft to the Australian market. I think they " yuneek " have done a great job with this layout and it sure looks like its a very viable aircraft.. But yeah, 40k for a kit, be it complete sure sounds expensive to me. As the Australian dealer for Flynano I can tell you that people will find this very expensive.. not saying they would not sell but I cant see them selling in any real numbers. Having just finished our Hanger with some pretty powerful solar power it would be a perfect addition for me... If I could afford it !

 

Here is a picture from one Espyder when they performed a formation flight at Airventure last week.

 

 

 

[Gforce]

electric planes look like a decent alternative to small 2 strokes. google egull 2000 thundergull

I totally agree with you here !! Actually, the Egull to me seems lightyears ahead of most. The motor of choice for the Egull is the Joby line of motors ( http://www.jobymotors.com/ ) and they have just released a 30kw version so now that should give the Egull a real power boost.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

last I heard, Mark Bierle has moved towards DC motors as it reduces the cost and complexity.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

[fly_tornado]

[Gforce]

Found a pretty good overview here.....

 

 

 

[fly_tornado]

quiet a few videos of a thundergull on electricity.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/star7gull/videos