
Pipistrel Velis Electro Completes Record Flights - prostoalex
https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/pipistrel-velis-electro-completes-record-flights/
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Robotbeat
This is a pretty low-performance electric airplane. Fairly efficient, from
light sport aircraft standards, but really inefficient compared to where you
could go if you want to push aerodynamic efficiency to its limits (ala high
performance sailplanes).

The chemistry isn't terribly high-performance and neither is the battery
weight fraction that high.

Once clean-sheet, ambitious designs like the Eviation Alice get off the
ground, we'll see these kinds of records rapidly ripped up.

Even so, I'm glad someone is doing this. Stunts are a good way to show the
current state of the art and focus engineers on obvious places for
improvement.

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Tuxer
Yeah agreed, even on the GA market, the eFlyer 2 is a much more aerodynamic
design (low wing, wheel pants, lower windshield height) which is already
claiming 36kW cruise at 100kts.

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Robotbeat
eFlyer 2 has a shorter wingspan, though, more like a traditional GA aircraft.

Pipistrel's aircraft can actually soar in thermals it has such a long wingspan
(I think).

But yeah, I like the eFlyer and I'm looking forward to the 4 person one which
you could theoretically use for passenger service.

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Gravityloss
I assume as flight schools using electric aircraft become more common, so will
the charging infrastructure.

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MichaelZuo
Even though they must have pushing the limits of the plane, 738 km all
electric is definitely a significant accomplishment. I wonder just how light
their plane is!

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dsr_
If I'm reading the article correctly, they had refuelling cars handing them
cables while in motion, so that they could recharge the batteries inflight.

It's a stunt.

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ZeroGravitas
I've been wondering how that kind of thing could be productized.

Like if take-off is the most energy intensive part, can you have a
magnetically connected cable that detaches once it get pulled to full length?
Of not, what is the problem and can we work around it?

Or auxiliary batteries that detach and return as parachute drones to be
recharged for the next takeoff?

Similarly, hydrogen fueling stations in the middle of the ocean seem like an
interesting way to decarbonise shipping.

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msandford
I think you'd have better luck with some kind of a glider launch system where
you have a stationary motor on the ground and a long cable. It's possible to
put 2kft of altitude on in less than a minute this way. If you wanted to do
the same with GA electric planes you probably could perhaps with longer
runways or more powerful winches esp. if you engineer the airframe to handle a
more powerful winch.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliding#Winch_launching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliding#Winch_launching)

