Electrically Powered Ultralight Aircraft

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in message
...

Let's take my 601XL. 2 aluminum 12 gallon tanks each tank ways let's say
10 pounds add in 145 lbs of fuel and you have 165 pounds of transportable
energy that will produce ~100HP for about 4 hours.

My question to anyone is what is the lightest battery that is capable of
powering any motor that will produce the equivilent power for and equal
amount of time?

Well, depending on which end of the gearbox it's measured, 40+ pounds of
NiCAD batteries got between 1-4 HP at maybe 70% motor power for 20 minutes
max before the battery output began to taper off. For perspective, the
Etek motor used on the ultralight in the link is probably about twice as
powerful as the motors we were using, so maybe for a ballpark measurement I
could double the battery time for the same weight. Theoretically if you
managed and cooled your batteries correctly you could get ~30 minutes for
that 40 pounds of batteries, or maybe two hours if you quadrupled it for
your ~160 pounds. Max.

Too much weight for an ultralight, and no way it's gonna get near 100HP.
Again, that's just a ballpark estimate.

-c