EAA AirVenture Is Wired For A More Electric World
The future took the captain’s seat at the world’s largest aviation gathering, the annual Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture convention at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, from July 22-28, where several manufacturers showed that battery power is viable for light aviation.
Leading the pack is Slovenia’s Pipistrel, which has been developing electric aircraft since 2007 and began deliveries two years ago of the world’s first production model, the two-seat Alpha Electro. With nearly 60 now in service worldwide, the company expects demand from U.S. flight schools to take off when the FAA joins the rest of the world in allowing electric propulsion in light sport aircraft (LSA).
“The FAA is going to revise it. It’s in full motion and coming quickly,” says EAA Chairman and CEO Jack Pelton. FAA Acting Administrator Dan Elwell visited numerous exhibitors to discuss rules for allowing electric LSAs, as well as the goal of expanding the category by raising the gross-weight limit, which would allow four-seat aircraft to be flown with a sport pilot license instead of a full airman’s certificate.
There are nine Alpha Electros in the U.S., certified as experimental aircraft rather than LSAs, and several are used for flight training under an exemption to their operating rules. But this is temporary, and the rule change is needed for the future, Pipistrel says. “We’re the only ones that are selling a proper production aircraft,” says distributor Michael Coates. “There are lots of people out there making promises of setting the world on fire, but we’re the only ones that have real aircraft you can buy now and use.”
With a low cost of operation, electric light aircraft are seen as one solution to increasing demand for pilot training. Manufacturers of conventional piston-powered training aircraft are already enjoying rising sales. Demand for Piper Aircraft’s Pilot 100 and 100i trainers has far exceeded expectations, says President and CEO Simon Caldecott, with U.S. flight schools signing purchase commitments for more than 100 aircraft since the lower-cost models were introduced in April.
Training aircraft sales at AirVenture included 50 Pipistrel Alpha Trainers and up to 100 Cessna Skyhawks. In addition, Pipistrel announced the Alpha King trainer equipped with BendixKing’s xVue Touch cockpit, while Continental Aerospace Technologies unveiled a drop-in replacement engine for some Lycoming-powered Cessna Skyhawks, and BendixKing introduced a cockpit upgrade for single-engine Cessnas.
Battery-powered aircraft are still limited in flight time, and Pipistrel plans to fly a hybrid-electric prototype by year-end. Aeromarine LSA introduced its single-seat Electrolite PSA (personal sport aircraft) at Oshkosh, and CEO Chip Erwin says battery power is well-suited to an ultralight that flies low and slow and goes nowhere for 45 min., but for longer range or speed, hybrid power is needed.
The Electrolite has several novel features, including dual control by radio from the ground. An instructor on the ground can take control of the aircraft at any time and monitor the pilot and aircraft on a laptop or large screen via airborne cameras and sensors. This offers a safe solution for training a pilot in a single-seat aircraft, Erwin says, insisting it is not a drone and flies legally as an ultralight so long as there is a person on board.
Cirrus Aircraft’s new CEO, Zean Nielsen, believes it might take another decade before the company’s class of fast, long-distance general aviation aircraft could go electric instead of gasoline-powered. “The weight and power density are not there yet; the batteries are so heavy. If you want to go any meaningful distance, you’ve got to have a big battery,” he says.
Underlining the link between hybrid and performance, XTI Aircraft announced at AirVenture that it has selected GE Aviation’s Catalyst turboprop as the basis for the hybrid-electric propulsion system in its planned TriFan 600 vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) business aircraft. Continental, meanwhile, has teamed with VerdeGoAero to provide diesel-cycle engines for hybrid-electric distributed propulsion systems for VTOL urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles.
While UAM had its own pavilion at Oshkosh, neither the UAM booth nor the drone-flying cage seemed able to draw attention away from the Innovation Pavilion that housed numerous small companies developing mostly single-seat personal air vehicles. This was very different from two years ago, when drones were the flavor of the day.
Seven of the finalists in the $2 million global GoFly Prize competition to develop personal flying vehicles were at AirVenture as they prepare for the final flyoffs in February 2020. GoFly Prize CEO Gwen Lighter is delighted with the response to the competition. “Everyone realizes that this really is a golden moment in aviation where we have the tools to make the dream of pure human flight a reality,” she says.
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