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The Drawing Board - Engineering News with Attitude
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Electric powered aircraft
Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud  
French engineers have created and flown an electric single-seater plane with a 18.64kW (25 HP) motor and 47 kg  (105 lbs) of lithium-polymer batteries. The flight lasted 48 minutes.
Anne Lavrand, the president of the APAME group, said. "This is a real aeroplane which will have an airworthiness certificate. It's a machine built for anyone with a pilot's license."
Although claimed a world first, we believe that the Japanese actually managed the first flight powered by batteries, a much shorter flight of approximately 400 metres.
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Spud () Newbie | 2008-01-06 04:11:10
a bit of a scary concept at first - but as I think it through - no different to having a piston engine - and probably a lot more things to go wrong in a piston engine - I suppose that if the worst happened - you could just glide down anyway
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Anonymous () Newbie | 2008-01-06 04:13:02
I was thinking that you could have a big rubber band as a spare power source - looking at the plane - that should do the trick - might even work better than batteries
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MonkeyWrench () Newbie | 2008-01-06 04:20:43
this battery power is good and the way of the world - just small incremental improvements in batteries and technology and we move forwards - the internal combustion engine is still a very good piece of engineering and gave the world enormous flexibility - how easy is it to transport and store fuel in drums and carry spare jerry cans and the engines are so reliable (usually)- unfortunately when put together with millions of others - just so damned dirty
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Stu () Newbie | 2008-01-06 04:23:23
don't write off the ic engine just yet - at the moment these batteries prove a point - but....still a lot of drawbacks with the batteries - efficiency , power to weight, maintenance etc etc
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Tess () Newbie | 2008-01-06 04:25:01
i think that its just a mind game - if the battery powered vehicle had been invented first - the ic would never have got off the ground - all those moving parts !!!
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Sandy () Newbie | 2008-01-06 04:27:46
we seem to have got off the point - the plane is good news and if the Americans get their act together with better engineering then there will be a whole new sport/pastime - cheaper to run, quieter (what a blessing) - just go for it
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Arnie () Newbie | 2008-01-06 04:28:52
I for one would love to give it a go - can't wait for it to come to an airfield near me
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Sunday 6 January, 2008 06:00 AM
 
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"A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible" - Freeman Dyson