Paul Marsh Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Not sure if anyone heard, but electric flight is now totally scale. First flight of a converted DH-2 Beaver with an electric power-plant BBC Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Ellis 1 Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Fantastic achievement, but.. does it really reduce carbon emissions overall? I'd like to know how we produce enough electricity for widespread use of electric vehicles without producing carbon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Chaddock Posted December 11, 2019 Share Posted December 11, 2019 Andy E I agree. Major changes to lifestyle and infrastructure are required to be even carbon neutral. If the majority of energy comes from renewable the world will have to operate at a much lower rates in both creating and using the things that use electricity. For instance can the world really withstand the effects of the current levels of mass travel or put another way humans are 'energy expensive' things to mechanically move around. They are even fairly energy costly just to maintain. Now that's a cheery Christmas thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 There have been several electric aircraft recently including a racing aircraft. But it isn't going to help one little bit! Think about this: The world population has doubled since 1976. By now all the kids born then will be getting to be grandparents. and all their offspring want cars, heating, holidays abroard etc. Now fully electric airliners might, just might, make a difference. I think we should go back to sailing ships for global travel!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterF Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Posted by Andy Ellis 1 on 11/12/2019 20:58:35: Fantastic achievement, but.. does it really reduce carbon emissions overall? I'd like to know how we produce enough electricity for widespread use of electric vehicles without producing carbon. I can not comment on the carbon footprint of making an IC engine and refining the fuel Vs making an electric motor and batteries. But what I do know having spent a lot of time working with industry in Vancouver and British Columbia is that with hydro, a lot of their electricity is low carbon, so in this case, yes it does work. It is certainly not the first full scale electric aeroplane, the link states it is the first commercial one. Regarding views held about generation of electricity, I believe that most people do not appreciate how much the balance has swung in the UK, there is now very little coal firing, some large stations have converted to biomass etc. See electric generation split at Ofgem generation data. This shows that the nuclear plus renewables is approximately 50% of the total UK generation now. What is also noticable on this is the reduction in electricity demand over the years, increases in efficiency and reductions in heavy industry. Since 2018 the UK has been running for short periods of time without any coal firing, with runs of several weeks at a time being achieved, with the only use probably being peak winter demand. See UK no coal days. Edited By PeterF on 12/12/2019 09:19:41 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Fry Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Yea Peter, but how clever is it to convert coal fired stations, to biomass fired stations, and then ship the biomass from the Americas. And continue to use a technology, nuclear fission reactors, where after 50 years still haven't worked out how to depose of the waste products, or stop them blowing up for that matter. And the UK has a fairly fragile grid system thanks to reliance on non constant energy supply systems, which resulted to large scale power cuts last winter. Nice plane though. Might work, it's one of those short hop tourist flight things is it not. Might still question if it's a good idea to fly at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J D 8 Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 We have no coal days but that is because much of our industry has been exported to China where massive new coal burning stations are coming on line every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Skilbeck Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 The UK grid isn't fragile because of non-constant energy supplies, it's more that renewables especially wind are situated where the grid infrastructure is limited, there are plans to upgrade the grid to take this into account. One of the reasons wind turbines are often stopped in windy conditions is hat they produce too much electricity and could overload the grid locally. As for these electric planes, it seems to make sense for these shorthaul flights in this area. They are not just tourist flights but a quick way to get to relatively remote locations, so quite useful for the local communities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Fry Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Frank, a power generating system is built, surely, with and infrastructure to supply power to where needed, not with plans to connect it when someone gets round to it or supplies the budget to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Walby Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Current status of G.B. Don't all put your kettles on at once! Edited By Chris Walby on 12/12/2019 12:37:08 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDD15 Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Wonder if they use regen braking through the prop on the descent to recover some energy back into the batteries? Works a treat on my Leaf. Onwards and now upwards! idd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 I would say getting everything possible on to electric makes our situation less worse. Full scale Airplanes are not the ideal end user of electric power. Although you can expect mixed mode power being introduced as an answer to noise issues at take off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Skilbeck Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Posted by Don Fry on 12/12/2019 10:54:32: Frank, a power generating system is built, surely, with and infrastructure to supply power to where needed, not with plans to connect it when someone gets round to it or supplies the budget to do it. Agree, but you stated that the grid was fragile because of the non constant supply systems, it's not, it's because the power is being put in somewhere else. The main reason they are building new nuclear power stations next to old ones is so they can use the same connection. To take advantage of wind power we need to upgrade the grid to those areas to tap into that. We had to do it with nuclear because they are all by the coast to use seawater for cooling, just a shame they picked the wrong piece of coast for the best use of offshore wind turbines. BTW anybody more interested in the electric DHC Beaver there's another video here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piers Bowlan Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 An interesting video about electric aircraft developments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marsh Posted December 12, 2019 Author Share Posted December 12, 2019 As I've said on another thread, imagine plugging 26 million cars into the National Grid, where it's already on its near max, talk about burying the needle!!! Electric cars won't work, period, there is not enough reserve to meet the demand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Cotsford Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 so let's keep burning fossil fuels until - what? Until it's too late to start working towards better solutions? Nobody is denying that we are just starting down a road that may just possibly improve things for our Grandchildren. As a great man once said " why dont you knock it off with those negative waves moriarty ? " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Skilbeck Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Posted by Paul Marsh on 12/12/2019 17:45:50: As I've said on another thread, imagine plugging 26 million cars into the National Grid, where it's already on its near max, talk about burying the needle!!! Electric cars won't work, period, there is not enough reserve to meet the demand. There's a "spare" 15 GW of power generation available each night for around 6 hours, this works out at around 85 miles per car per day, assuming 26 million cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Fry Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 Frank, is that 26 million 2 ton SUVs, or the half ton cars we should be developing? Returning to the tread, the nice Beaver pictured at the top of the page gets aloft on 65? horse, with the pilot reporting he was backing off. Edited By Don Fry on 13/12/2019 09:17:48 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin_K Posted December 13, 2019 Share Posted December 13, 2019 I thought it would be fun to apply the same methods we use for evaluating electric power trains to the full size version. Unfortunately the Magnix product pages do not provide details for battery and speed controller to go with the motor. A few bits however. Motor and drive electronics are liquid cooled. The magni500 has a power rating of 560kW and nominal voltage of 540V, implying peak current exceeds 1000A - that would get hot! Propeller bolts direct to the rotor, so no gearbox, with a base speed of 1900 RPM. It seems Magnix are taking the one big motor, not multiple small motors, path. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piers Bowlan Posted December 14, 2019 Share Posted December 14, 2019 Distributed electric propulsion in a new design seems to offer most in the way of improved aerodynamic efficiency as well as structural benefits and weight saving. Retrofitting an existing (old) design like the Beaver with electric propulsion significantly reduces noise, which is a real advantage when operating a floatplane from urban harbour areas like Vancouver and Seattle, - albeit a niche application. The electric Pipistrel apparently offers great cost advantages compared with an IC basic trainer, as much of it's life is spent in the aerodrome circuit with students at the controls (circuits and bumps!), - or 'pattern' as our American cousins call it. Quieter too, so another niche application for a full sized electric aircraft. So the driver here is not necessarily carbon reduction but operating cost and noise reduction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDD15 Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 More significant progress on the full size electric front. eCaravan Some very significant progress too in terms of providing redundancy in the motor and power supply. This outfit certainly appear to have their act together whilst pushing the boundaries... idd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David perry 1 Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 I saw the news about an electric airliner. It is scheduled to fly soon and will do one hundred miles. Brilliant. Right lads, who's for avtur? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Colbourne Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 There are a good number of short hop flights around the world for which the electric Cessna Caravan would already be the best solution. For passenger safety, propellers must be stopped when boarding and disembarking, which drastically shortens the service intervals on turboprops; hence the reason Aurigny in the Channel Islands hung onto their piston-engined Trislanders for so long. Air-cooled piston engines have their own problems with lots of starting and stopping, so on short inter-island routes electric aircraft are already at an advantage. Two or more motors would be desirable though as electric motors, and speed controllers do fail. The 90 second Westray/Papa Westray route may be the first to be electrified in this country, Loganair were toting this a couple of years ago, and with the help of Cranfield Aerospace are converting one of their Islanders. Project Fresson - Electric Britten Norman Islander Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDD15 Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 That's really interesting about the BN Islander. I'd love to see a full size leccy one as it's one of my favourite aircraft. Lots of good stuff going on in Orkney generally in terms of renewables, use of hydrogen for ferries etc. Fully Charged on YouTube have done two or three programs up there that are worth a look. Fully Charged have an annual show for all things electric/renewables which this year was supposed to be at Farnborough. All electric aircraft were supposed to be exhibiting for the first time. Hopefully it will take place in the near future. Cheers idd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Crook Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Postponed until next year now, probably wisely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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