Battery-powered aircraft crosses the Alps
July 08, 2015 // Christoph Hammerschmidt
Researchers of the Institute of Aircraft Design in Stuttgart
showed the practicability of battery powered aircraft in a
flight
across the Alps mountains a first time for a battery-powered
plane. The flight also marks a milestone in the quest for
energy-
efficient and carbon-neutral aviation.
Past saturday morning, the electric aircraft e-Genius flew from
the
airfield Hahnweide near Stuttgart over the Alps to Italy. On its
way to
the airfield Calcinate del Pesce in Northern Italy the aircraft
covered a
distance of 320 km (200 miles) and climbed to an altitude of
4000 m
(13.200 feet) in order to safely pass the summits of the Swiss
Alps.
The airplane represents a state-of-the art touring glider in
most of its
design characteristics two pilots in a side-by-side seat
arrangement, wing span of 16,9 metres and a glide ratio of 34.
The
most significant difference: The plane is equipped with a 60kW
electric motor that drives a constant-speed propeller, located
at the top of the vertical tail fin. The energy is stored in
four lithium ion battery packs with a total capacity of 56 kWh.
During its record flight the e-genius was flown by pilots Klaus
Ohlmann and Ingmar Gei of the University of Stuttgart.
e-Genius arrived at its destination in little over two hours. On
the same day, the batteries were recharged and e-Genius
headed back to Stuttgart in the afternoon. This was a particular
challenge because of the steep profile of the Swiss Alps. In
order to have enough time to climb, a flight path across the
Gotthard pass was chosen, which meant the aircraft had to cover
an even longer 365 km distance back to its home airfield.
Besides emitting extremely little amounts of carbon gas, the
energy consumption of the flight showed the impressive
potential
of this aircraft technology: for both flights combined, only 83
kWh were used, the energy equivalent of 9.2 litres of gasoline.
This leads to a total energy expense of only 21 for the whole
trip, assuming current electricity prices in Germany.
The electric aircraft e-Genius was developed at the University
of Stuttgart and is in a flight test program since May 2011.
The goal of the project is the investigation of innovative
propulsion technologies and aircraft configurations in order to
minimize energy consumption as well as the carbon gas and noise
emission of future aircraft.
More information: www.ifb.uni-stuttgart.de/egenius
Aircraft data:
http://www.ifb.uni-stuttgart.de/egenius/page_Aircraft/
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