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Germany started with electric cars and bikes, and now they are taking things to the air with the PC-Aero Elektra One. This single-seat ultralight plane has a composite airframe and a 16-kilowatt motor with a range of 400 kilometers and a max flight time of three hours. At a cruising speed of 160 km/h (about 99 mph for us anglophiles), the aircraft won't be setting any speed records, but given that it's being designed as an eco-friendly way to enjoy "leisure aviation," you should've expected to travel at a leisurely pace, indeed. The Elektra One hasn't taken to the air just yet, but PC-Aero plans to perform the first flight test later this month, so we can look forward to seeing another electric plane flying overhead in the near future. Check the video after the break to see and hear the future of aviation for yourself.

Continue reading PC-Aero ready to fly the Elektra One, Germany's latest electric-powered plane

PC-Aero ready to fly the Elektra One, Germany's latest electric-powered plane originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Germany started with electric cars and bikes, and now they are taking things to the air with the PC-Aero Elektra One. This single-seat ultralight plane has a composite airframe and a 16-kilowatt motor with a range of 400 kilometers and a max flight time of three hours. At a cruising speed of 160 km/h (about 99 mph for us anglophiles), the aircraft won't be setting any speed records, but given that it's being designed as an eco-friendly way to enjoy "leisure aviation," you should've expected to travel at a leisurely pace, indeed. The Elektra One hasn't taken to the air just yet, but PC-Aero plans to perform the first flight test later this month, so we can look forward to seeing another electric plane flying overhead in the near future. Check the video after the break to see and hear the future of aviation for yourself.

Continue reading PC-Aero ready to fly the Elektra One, Germany's latest electric-powered plane

PC-Aero ready to fly the Elektra One, Germany's latest electric-powered plane originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Wired  |  PC-Aero  | Email this | Comments

This impressive demonstration is by researchers at the Flying Machine Arena, part of the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zürich. They're also involved in more serious flying robotic research, such as in the demonstration by Angela Schöllig:

[via Engadget]

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Charles Richter and Hod Lipson created this sweet little flapper that is so robust it can stay in the air for over a minute.

This project has focused on developing a flapping-wing hovering insect using 3D printed wings and mechanical parts. The use of 3D printing technology has greatly expanded the possibilities for wing design, allowing wing shapes to replicate those of real insects or virtually any other shape. It has also reduced the time of a wing design cycle to approximately one hour. An ornithopter with a mass of 3.89g has been constructed using the 3D printing technique and has demonstrated an 85- second passively stable hovering flight. This flight exhibits the functional utility of printed materials for flapping wing experimentation and ornithopter construction.

You can watch a movie of the insect or read Richter and Lipson's paper describing the project.

[Thanks, Sailindaze!]

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This is an illustration from physics professor Peter Alway's 1995 book Rockets of the World. That little black-and-yellow smudge in the second row, that's the V-2. Hit the jump for mega-size.

Click on the picture to zoom or download the full 3,322×5,079 image here. It's quite amazing what a monster the Saturn V still is, almost 40 years in retirement.

[Via Jalopnik]

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