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Old August 15th 07, 01:48 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dan G
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Posts: 245
Default Electrically Powered Ultralight Aircraft

On Aug 10, 3:14 pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
The only electric winch I've seen specs for, the ESW2B,http://www.startwinde.de/, solves that problem by consisting largely of
a bank of heavy duty 88 AH SLAs. These act as a buffer between the mains
supply and the winch motor, a 200 kW unit.


I know of a winch in Denmark which is diesel-electric. It sits on an
old Scania truck whose engine is connected to an alternator, and the
alternator to the winch motor, all under (reasonably simple) computer
control. It's self-contained, but gives smooth, powerful, controlled
and repeatable launches. IMO it's probably the best winch design from
a technical stand point. However it's much more expensive than a
normal big V8/truck axle winch, and it's not clear that the benefits
outweigh the costs.


Dan