Electrically Powered Ultralight Aircraft

On Wed, 8 Aug 2007 10:55:38 -0500, "Gig 601XL Builder"
wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in
:

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 would now but when the best previous powered flight it was ZERO in both
time and distance anything 0 was significant. And, unfortunately, for the
electric powered airplane folks they have to be compared at least to what I
can build in my garage and attach a 1960's vintage Corvair engine too.

Sonex's electric airplane especially has to be judged against that criteria
because they already make a plane that I can build in my garage and hang a
Corvair engine on.


Electrically powered flight is in its infancy just as powered flight
was in 1903.

Larry Dighera wrote:


Electrically powered flight is in its infancy just as powered flight
was in 1903.

That matters not. It still has to be compared to what it is supposed to
replace. Would you want an electric car that was the technological equal to
this? http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cars/cugnot.jpg.

The otherside of that is that we can expect to wait until 2110 for electric
flight to catch up to where we are now with gasoline powered flight.