Electrically Powered Ultralight Aircraft

On Aug 8, 8:35 am, Larry Dighera wrote:
On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:20:22 -0700, wrote in
.com:



I have not seen any significant flight duration claim on the Sonex,
which speaks well for the design team.

I really hate to burst your bubble but, from the Sonex link above.

"Initial top speeds will reach approximately 130 mph, and endurance is
expected to range between 25-45 minutes or longer, depending upon power
usage on each individual flight."- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I also read that but "Expected to be" isn't a claim and 45 minutes is
not what I would call significant duration.

Would you characterize 12 seconds ad significant?

http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html
The First Flight, spanning some 120 feet in 12 seconds. The next
flight, Wilbur's first flight on the 17th, extended to some 175
feet in 13 seconds and a landing was accomplished with no damage
to The Flyer. Orville's second attempt that day, and his last one
in The Flyer, carried him just over 200 feet in 15 seconds and
ended with a safe landing. At noon, Wilbur took-off on the last
and the longest flight which The Flyer would ever make, and flew
for 852 feet, staying aloft for 59 seconds.

I guess I should have clarified that my comments refer to the here and
now where 12 seconds and\or 45 minutes are both insignificant in terms
of useful flight duration. While any duration is important the first
time achieved it will only become marketable when it has reached a
practical use point. Hopefully today's developments will lead to
something in the future that is but for now they are interesting
engineering experiments. Most people should and do applaud the efforts
while some think the future is already here. For those adventurers we
have $100,000 cars and underpowered trikes available right now.
I'm going to hold off for a little while longer.