Elfly racer støttet av Airbus - Curt Lewis

Airbus-Backed Tournament Unveils First Electric Racing Aircraft

(REUTERS) - AN Airbus-backed air racing tournament unveiled an electric-powered sports aircraft on Sunday, billed as the world's first, as the European planemaker seeks to boost its green aerospace technology.

Several companies, including U.S. ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc , are working on electric-powered flying cars, amid increasing concerns about the environmental impact of fossil-fuel intensive air travel.

Last month, Airbus rival Boeing announced a partnership with automaker Volkswagen's sports car brand, Porsche, to develop a concept electric flying vehicle capable of transporting people in urban environments.

Air Race E said the aircraft, called White Lightning and unveiled at the Dubai Air Show, will be manufactured by UK-based Condor Aviation.

The aircraft will use an electric motor that will carry it at flight speeds of around 482 kilometers (300 miles) per hour on a tight 5 kilometer (about 3 miles) circuit, just 10 meters above the ground.

"The racing series will provide a test bed for innovation and accelerate the journey towards electric commercial travel," Air Race E Chief Executive Jeff Walkman said.

Lithium batteries installed under the fuselage of the plane will provide power for five minutes of high intensity racing and around 10 minutes of reserve flying at reduced power, the firm said.

Air Race E is aiming to be the world's first all-electric airplane competition when it launches its inaugural series of international races in 2020. It expects to this week name eight teams for its first race.

The Race To Boost Electric Aircraft Speed

Nov 20, 2019Graham Warwick | Aviation Week & Space Technology

 

 

Over the years of the Schneider Trophy air race, from 1913 to 1931, aircraft speed increased from about 60 mph to more than 340 mph, setting the stage for the high-performance piston-powered fighters of World War II.

The organizers of Air Race E, and founding sponsor Airbus, hope the new racing series will similarly drive the state of the art for electric-powered aircraft. “Our aim by establishing an electric racing series is to develop a unifying platform for the development of cleaner, faster and more technologically advanced electric aircraft,” says Air Race E CEO Jeff Zaltman.

The first electric racing aircraft was unveiled at the Dubai Airshow by Air Race E, Airbus and UK race team Condor Aviation. Nicknamed “White Lightning,” the aircraft is a Cassutt formula one racer modified with a 150-kW Contra Electric Propulsion power train with twin motors driving contrarotating, reversible propellers.

Air Race E racing series to begin late next year

Electric aircraft record attempts planned for 2020

A second Cassutt is being modified into an electric racer for Air Race E by the University of Nottingham under the leadership of engineering fellow Richard Glassock. This aircraft, with an initial electric drivetrain built using commercial off-the-shelf components, is expected to fly in the first quarter of 2020.

Glassock has also been involved in development of White Lightning, with which Condor intends to compete in the first Air Race E event, planned for late 2020. Its custom electric power train is expected to power the aircraft to speeds of around 300 mph over 10 laps of the 5-km (3.1-mi.) circuit. More than 100 kg (220 lb.) of lithium batteries will provide power for 5 min. of racing plus a 10 min. reserve.

Condor Aviation’s Air Race E aircraft has a 150-kW Contra Electric twin-motor, contrarotating-propeller propulsion system. Credit: Airbus

Air Race E is just one of several efforts aiming to raise the speed of electric aircraft. Rolls-Royce is leading a UK project, ACCEL, to set a new speed record of more than 300 mph. The current record for electric aircraft, almost 210 mph, was set in March 2017 by a Siemens-powered Extra 330LE.

Where the Extra 330LE has a 260-kW motor, the ACCEL—a highly modified Sharp Nemesis NXT racing aircraft—will have three motors from UK developer Yasa delivering more than 370 kW to the single propeller. The White Lightning has two similar motors, each driving a two-blade fixed-pitch prop.

Chip Yates, who held the electric aircraft speed record until overtaken by the Extra 330LE, is planning a new record attempt in an improved version of his Long-ESA, a modified Rutan Long-EZ kitplane. He was the first to exceed 200 mph in an electric aircraft, in 2012, and set six official world records in 2013.

Yates says he plans to make a new attempt on six world records in the first quarter of 2020. The aircraft has a new UQM Technologies motor controller and a 600-lb. battery pack built by Farasis Energy, “which at 53 kWh is, I think, the largest capacity battery pack to fly in an electric airplane to date,” he says.

“This new pack gives us the capacity to reach over 25,000 ft. altitude as well as to attempt the higher category of time-to-climb records [6,000 m/20,000 ft.] that we simply didn’t have enough pack for last time,” he says. Yates is also developing the Very Fast Plane, with more than 975 kW of motor power, aiming at pushing the speed record beyond 400 mph. This is in the aerodynamic analysis phase, he says.

For Nottingham, the Air Race E work is part of the Propulsion Futures initiative under the university’s Beacons of Excellence research investment strategy. The Phase 1 racer “is a relatively simple baseline example which is cost-effective and easy for a broad range of builders to learn from and emulate,” says Glassock.

Phase 2, a four-year effort to be funded by the university under its Beacons strategy, will develop a custom-designed electric propulsion system optimized for maximum performance and efficiency and suitable for both Air Race E as well as commercial application to light aircraft types, he says