PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - The future of the helicopter is electric.
Old 13th September 2010 | 01:03
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22clipper
 
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 292
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From: Sydney
hybrid Vs purebred

Interesting debate lads. While its true that some breakthrough in battery technology is needed to get anywhere range wise with a purist all electric chopper today, the technology is improving at 9% per year which means that batteries will be half the size for the same energy storage in just a decade even without a game changer.
Re hybrids. The auto industry have tweaked that's it's easier to move energy over wires than drive shafts, the Lexus RX400h has an all electric rear transaxle for example. A turbine (or two) running a poly phase alternator with wires to all electric MRB/TRB direct drives with minimal or no batteries is not science fiction as a concept.
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