Yikes. Looks like a guaranteed, gruesome death for someone.

In my own words, the team from E-Shytorque have the following to say:

"Sorry, I'm not that desperate to fly :ooh: "

I bet the running cost is lower than your normal mount.

Yes but how much for one that will do 155-160 kts and carry six passengers?

Sitting in between all them rotating knives brings to mind a Monty Python sketch about Freemasons, architects, and a competition to build the next block of apartment flats ... as submitted by someone who usually builds abattoirs.

Not quite a helicopter

"The First Electric Helicopter' in AHS Vertiflite
 

There is a 5-page article on Pascal Chretien's electric helicopter in the March-April 2012 issue of the American Helicopter Society's magazine Vertiflite.

On the cover it says 'The First Electric Helicopter'. The article is entitled 'The Quest for the World's First Electric Manned Helicopter Flight'.

The article is impressive and Pascal should be proud, considering the long hours and work that he put into the project.


Dave

"You want me to track & balance what?"

http://i.imgur.com/fbMPxA8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/fVF89pP.jpg

(Source)

I/C

Ian,

OK, two rotors can do.

But make that little wee one bigger, and make it point upwards where it can do some work.

Dave

I was thinking they'll need to keep that pusher prop to help offset the very slight drag penalty of the static mast structure.

And when the cube/square rule rears its big, ugly heard, when they try to scale that thing up ... :p

Interesting looking prototype, however.

Volocopter
 

Not sure if the designer ever heard of the KISS principle, but only it's mother could love it..... :ouch:

AW&ST: Volocopter - Safety and Simplicity in Numbers

A strange, 16-propeller vertical take-off and landing craft has been awarded the Lindberg Prize for Innovation at the Aero-Friedrichshafen 2012 airshow in Germany. It is an example of the unusual configurations made possible by distributed electric propulsion.

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...ae40e.Full.jpg

The VC1 was first flown by Karlsruhe-based e-volo in October 2011 as a proof of concept for its Volocopter, an aircraft that uses multiple small, electric-powered, fixed-pitch propellers for lift and flight control. The array of battery-driven props provide redundancy for safety and are individually controlled via a fly-by-wire system to provide flight control via differential power by varying motor rotational speed in response to joystick inputs.

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...335fa.Full.jpg

The single-seat, four-armed VC1 measures 17ft x 17ft and weighs 80kg empty, and could fly for about 20 minutes on current battery technology, says e-volo. The company is now designing a two-seat VTOL aircraft, the Volocopter VC Evolution 2P, that mounts its 18 props and motors on an umbrella-like structure above the helicopter-style fuselage. The aircraft is being designed to comply with European ultra-light (ULM) regulations.

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...60193.Full.jpg

[IMG]Fitted with a pusher propeller for forward flight, this aircraft will have a take-off weight of 450kg, speed exceeding 54kt (100km/h), altitude capability of at least 6,500ft and a flight time of more than an hour thanks to a serial hybrid power system - with a "range-extender" internal-combustion engine that will recharge the batteries in flight.[/IMG]

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver...375a1.Full.jpg

Awarding the prize to e-volvo, Erik Lindbergh (Charles Lindbergh's grandson) said: "We believe that the development of the Volocopter holds significant promise to radically change short-distance transportation." The Lindbergh Foundation's prizes are intended to promote advances in green aviation.

A new article in Rotor & Wing.

Designer of Electric Helo Reflects on 2011 Flight Tests

Dave

Interesting. He pretty much confirms what I'd guessed, that reduction gearboxes are the weak links in helicopter design. I thing a genset powered by turbines and a fully electric main and tail rotor is the future until power storage increases. It might not save much weight for now, but it will be cheaper and more reliable. But most importantly safer, as the genset can fail and you could still land on battery power.

AdamFrisch-

If "gearboxes are the weak link in helicopter design", why do most modern rotorcraft still use 2 (or even 3) turboshaft engines, at least 2 separate hydraulic systems, at least 2 separate electrical power bus circuits and generators, at least two sets of pilots and controls, etc., but only a single MRGB?

Blaming a mechanical system for problems with rotorcraft is what one would expect from an electrical engineer. The reality is that the MTBF record of any current rotorcraft gearbox is far better than that of any rotorcraft electrical system.

This might, or might not, be of some interest. http://www.unicopter.com/NoIdea.gif

Annual Safety Review easa.europa.ex


Dave

Dave_Jackson,

Thanks for the link to the accident report.

Yes, the report shows a slightly lower number of rotorcraft accidents attributable to engine related systems versus gearbox related systems. But one might argue that does not mean engine systems are more reliable or have a lower MTBF. In fact, one might argue that the only reason engine failures have not produced more accidents is due to the functional fault tolerance provided by a single main gearbox with multiple engine inputs.

Hi riff_raff,

Today a person asked me for information on a little known Flettner proposal in the US after WW2, so a request was put on PPRuNe to see if anyone knows anything.

It happens to mention the gearbox, but please don't think that I am picking on gearboxes. http://www.unicopter.com/Wink.gif


Dave

Electric Future for the Heli..?
 

e-Volo on you tube

Being a child form the Steam age I do not kow how to capture and lift the you tube content, but I have just watched a very short video of a guy and his two friends who actually flew a battery powered one man sit on hovering platform, I urge those who are interested in all things of a Heli type nature to take a look it is brilliant.:D:D

Peter R-B
Lancashire

I agree. The future of all flight is electric. Here's a thread I started a couple of years ago.

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/426...-electric.html

That'll be a pretty dismal future until battery/fuel-cell technology improves by a couple of orders of magnitude. Give it 30 years and just maybe.

Maiden flight of the e-volo project:

Revolutionary green helicopter makes maiden flight | Vertical Magazine - The Pulse of the Helicopter Industry


skadi

Looks like things have progressed - first manned flight!!
 

The first manned flight of the Volocopter has just taken place. D-MYVC can be seen in this video piloted by the CEO of Volocopter:




Fascinating - will be interested to read the views of all the aero engineers out there as to the future prospects of this. Good video.:D
2Sticks

Impressive lift off......can't wait to see it Auto ��

An interesting video. However, I think it still only has a 20 minute endurance and a 55 kt cruise speed so there's a long way to go before it has much commercial use as a manned vehicle concept.

The company states that it will still fly in the event that a number of rotors fail, but the number isn't stated, although they do also say that it's fitted with a parachute.

Reminds me of another 'distributed lift' project from a few years back, which had some interesting potential (and which could have sent tinfoil prices skyrocketing). Never saw a single mention of it in the press, but a conceptual image does exist on the web:

http://www.ernstgamper.ch/images/dma_2.jpg

I/C

It looks like a single sidestick to control 4 axes - pitch, roll, yaw and vertical (collective).

Be interesting to see if the average joe can get a pure yaw or vertical movement without the natural movement of the hand and wrist bringing in some cross-coupling, with unwanted roll/pitch/whatever.

But this fella seems to do OK and even lets the stick go.

The use of Tethered uav and drones is being explored and results so far are encouraging. Power goes up the wire so fewer batteries needed.

I see a can of regulatory worms labeled manned, powered, tethered flight:)

Another can of worms, do regs cover a commercial, fare paying passenger flight, which is controlled via tether by pilot on the ground?

Enormous redundancy can be built in at a minimal penalty...

Mickjoebill

.

Arthur Young was doing this stuff in the 1930's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur...r_M._Young.jpg

That is actually pretty impressive really. What is the power source, batteries I know, but how many, type, endurance etc?

He looked pretty relaxed stooging around at lethal levels on the first flight in an experimental aircraft.

Well done.

Ever since the idea of electrical power for cars became a serious proposition rather than speculation one thing keeps occurring to me and I think it may be relevant to the discussion here. Interchangeable modular batteries. The practicality of recharging associated with cars has always looked like a show-stopper to me. It's difficult enough to find anywhere to park, let alone with a recharging socket conveniently available. However the infrastructure for refuelling with petrol is ubiquitous. It's obviously a gross simplification but modular rechargable batteries which can be rapidly swapped would eliminate the problem to some extent. Of course getting agreement amongst manufacturers - whether of car or aircraft - for a common modular battery format is likely to be all but impossible.

skridlov: The idea exists since exactly 120 years now and was in service between 1910 and 1924 called GeVeCo. The biggest modern battery-swapping project Better Place went bankrupt in 2013. They erected 21 robotic swapping stations in Israel and 17 in Denmark.
Apparently Tesla Model S is also capable of battery swapping but only one swapping station was built and Tesla seems to have abandoned the project due to low demand and high costs compared to regular fast-charging.

For helicopters I think with today's battery technology, the way to go is gas turbine generated electricity. Buffer battery for peak loads / takeoff power. 5 minutes purely electric flying ability for emergency landing in case of engine failure. :ok:

DARPA just gave Aurora Flight Sciences $89 million to build a flight demonstrator of their Lightning Strike hybrid gas turbine/electric VTOL aircraft. The stated performance goals are 10,000-12,000 lbs GVW and 300-400 kts max speed. It uses a single 5600 shp AE1107C turboshaft engine (similar to the V-22's engine) to drive three generators.

A few years ago EADS was touting eCO2avia, a diesel-electric solution with two OPOC diesels charging two batteries via electric generators, and with electric motors driving the rotors. The concept, which was previously mentioned in the 'Electric Sikorsky' thread, had the potential to free designers from the traditional layout constraints of mechanical transmission helicopters:
The concept went 'quiet' shortly after its unveiling, though interestingly Airbus and Siemens just signed an agreement to cooperate on the field of hybrid electric propulsion systems.

I/C

Just make sure nobody/nothing cuts that wire bundle. :)

IFO
 

?New? Ideas about electric helicopters:

Identified-Flying-Object

Cheers SLB

Love the dreamer's pic of the Identified Flying Object "Landing in the streets" - no cars visible anywhere, the Object floating down between palm-lined footpaths, and hasn't yet deployed the landing struts at 10'agl.

That Object also needs special ground steps and boards to allow people to access the cabin - where will they be kept? Nice little cgi bit of mental m@stur... well, you get the idea.

A. Charlie: it appears to need two or three parking spots as compared to, say, a Fiat 500.

But you wouldn't park your Bambino on a pedestrian crossing, beside a "no parking" yellow line. But it's OK, no cop cars in sight.

That parachute might reduce their terminal velocity from 120kt to maybe 115.

Electrical powered helicopters - such as R44
 

What's the likely hood of electrically powered helicopters becoming a reality for GA and Commercial operations?
I see from this article that 'Tier 1 Engineering' is making some inroads https://www.tier1engineering.com/news/093016