Poll: Do you have, or plan to get, an electric car?

[Bilsch]

Not all of the energy in the grid comes from fossil fuels. A small but growing segment comes from clean renewables.

40% of the US grid is non fossil fueled.

 

[day_trippr]

Half of that is from nukes...

 

[Bilsch]

Cool huh.
My car is mostly powered by fusion (solar) with a little fission from the grid thrown in for good measure.

 

[Broothru]

Cool huh.
My car is mostly powered by fusion (solar) with a little fission from the grid thrown in for good measure.

So totally obvious, and yet I never thought of it quite that way. Every milliwatt of power I get from solar arrays can be thought of as derived from nuclear fusion. Now THAT is COOL!

 

[doug293cz]

Alice, the first all-electric passenger airplane, prepares to fly

"The Alice, a plane developed by Israeli company Eviation, went through engine testing last week at Arlington Municipal Airport north of Seattle. According to Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay, the Alice is just weeks away from its first flight. ... Though the company initially aimed for the Alice to take flight before 2022, poor weather conditions in the Pacific Northwest at the end of the year hindered testing."​

To be honest, I didn't know anyone was close to flying this large of an electric airplane.

I can vouch for the crappy flying weather in the PNW recently, as it has left me frustrated. Now I want to find out when they plan to flight test, so I can fly up and watch.

Brew on

 

[day_trippr]

I know you fly, but I came across that article in my news feed today and actually wondered why it was taking so long to progress from low speed taxi-ing. I'd be tempted to take that thing out to some dry CA lake bed and try some brief lift-offs

Cheers!

 

[doug293cz]

I know you fly, but I came across that article in my news feed today and actually wondered why it was taking so long to progress from low speed taxi-ing. I'd be tempted to take that thing out to some dry CA lake bed and try some brief lift-offs

Cheers!

Unless the wings are removable, moving it on the ground isn't an option.

I'm surprised they are located in Arlington, WA, as a lot of this type of work goes on in Mojave, CA (where the weather is more dependable.)

Brew on

 

[day_trippr]

Wings are always removable. Planes aren't born with full size wings attached
Well...maybe not practically removable, I'll give you that...

Cheers!

 

[Bilsch]

I'm surprised they are located in Arlington, WA, as a lot of this type of work goes on in Mojave, CA (where the weather is more dependable.)

I think it's because Magnix, the motor/propulsion systems manufacturer, is located in Everett. They have also been working on getting an electric Beaver certified for Harbour Air who has a lot of bases in the NW.

 

[day_trippr]

Well, that is pretty cool. As an avid flyfisher I've often been conveyed on Beavers and Otters to far flung locations in Canada and have to say DeHavilland airframes are about as rugged as they come. Moving one of those with batteries is impressive - they ain't ultralights

 

[NickTheGreat]

Wings are always removable. Planes aren't born with full size wings attached
Well...maybe not practically removable, I'll give you that...

Cheers!

Airplane wings are quite easy to remove. It's getting them back on that's the difficult part.

 

[doug293cz]

Airplane wings are quite easy to remove. It's getting them back on that's the difficult part.

Mine come off and go back on easily, but they are specifically designed to do that. I doubt the same is the case for the Alice.

Brew on

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Well, that is pretty cool. As an avid flyfisher I've often been conveyed on Beavers and Otters to far flung locations in Canada and have to say DeHavilland airframes are about as rugged as they come. Moving one of those with batteries is impressive - they ain't ultralights

The downside of an electric floatplane is obvious... Not only do you need to handle the weight of the batteries while in flight, but you also have to have enough buoyancy to float them!

 

[Bilsch]

The downside of an electric floatplane is obvious... Not only do you need to handle the weight of the batteries while in flight, but you also have to have enough buoyancy to float them!

But for this airline the upside is obvious. Mostly shorthaul flights between their seabases in the Vancouver area. Once certified they will save a metric boatload of money on fuel and maintenance. Not to mention all the good will from ecstatic residents living near those bases who no longer have to listen to the drone of engines.

 

[passedpawn]

The downside of an electric floatplane is obvious... Not only do you need to handle the weight of the batteries while in flight, but you also have to have enough buoyancy to float them!

Seaplanes have one major advantage: they can land with or without landing gear, assuming there is both water and land present.

I had an engineer tell me an interesting story a few weeks ago. He was asked by a local seaplane owner to design retractable landing gear for his sea plane. Hardware and firmware design. They went up on the maiden voyage and sadly the ONE thing that could foul the test happened: only one of the wheels descended. For a frantic 10 minutes, the experimental pilot and engineer assessed how much fuel they had, tried to find a way to remove the gear altogether, etc. Anyway, the engineer pulled out his laptop, found his code bug (!!!), fixed bug, plugged his laptop into the motor control board, and reprogrammed. They then landed safely. Surreal. I design mostly medical and military stuff, but also some aircraft electronics, and this was just a mind-blowing story. Engineer even took the stick at one point while the pilot tried to disengage the gear with a makeshift tool.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Seaplanes have one major advantage: they can land with or without landing gear, assuming there is both water and land present.

I had an engineer tell me an interesting story a few weeks ago. He was asked by a local seaplane owner to design retractable landing gear for his sea plane. Hardware and firmware design. They went up on the maiden voyage and sadly the ONE thing that could foul the test happened: only one of the wheels descended. For a frantic 10 minutes, the experimental pilot and engineer assessed how much fuel they had, tried to find a way to remove the gear altogether, etc. Anyway, the engineer pulled out his laptop, found his code bug (!!!), fixed bug, plugged his laptop into the motor control board, and reprogrammed. They then landed safely. Surreal. I design mostly medical and military stuff, but also some aircraft electronics, and this was just a mind-blowing story. Engineer even took the stick at one point while the pilot tried to disengage the gear with a makeshift tool.

LOL... As an electrical engineer myself, I can imagine! I've had to help customers through issues where millions of dollars of equipment might be on the line, but never anything where "fix it or we crash and die" are the stakes lol!

 

[day_trippr]

Clearly, that saga should never have happened.
Whatever happened to ground testing?
Sheesh...

 

[doug293cz]

But for this airline the upside is obvious. Mostly shorthaul flights between their seabases in the Vancouver area. Once certified they will save a metric boatload of money on fuel and maintenance. Not to mention all the good will from ecstatic residents living near those bases who no longer have to listen to the drone of engines.

With propeller airplanes, a large fraction, sometimes most, of the noise comes from the propeller, not the engine. Modern propeller designs can reduce the prop noise, but I don't know how much.

Brew on

 

[passedpawn]

Clearly, that saga should never have happened.
Whatever happened to ground testing?
Sheesh...

Right, I asked. There was ground testing, but he said the electronics were affected by the VHF radio in the plane. Well, this is what he told me. I've designed lots of brushed and brushless motor drivers, and I can't imagine how any radio interference could affect it (motors are quite noisy environment itself). But this is what he told me. No idea how code could have fixed that. BTW, this "engineer" is not a superstar engineer. I've proofed a couple of his designs and they were full of issues.

 

[passedpawn]

LOL... As an electrical engineer myself, I can imagine! I've had to help customers through issues where millions of dollars of equipment might be on the line, but never anything where "fix it or we crash and die" are the stakes lol!

I have soldered inside a medical device inside a hospital room. Added a nursecall feature to a device. I closed the door so the staff couldn't smell the solder smoke. I have lots of stories like that haha. Don't tell the FDA.

 

[day_trippr]

Not a hospital room, but one of my IBM 370/145 memory extension designs (a synthesized memory port) was actually flight-tested inside UPMC hospital in Pittsburg. And not without issues: we had a bug where if you queried the CICS system that ran the hospital with a patient search for "Santos" it would reliably crash the mainframe (eep!)

Eventually I discovered we had tapped into a clock circuit with a wire lead that was long enough to cause edge case failure due to wave form distortion. I literally soldered a buffer card to the attachment point in the wee hours of the morning, et voila! We could accept the humongous check that paid for the machine...

Cheers!

 

[Ogilthorpe2]

With propeller airplanes, a large fraction, sometimes most, of the noise comes from the propeller, not the engine. Modern propeller designs can reduce the prop noise, but I don't know how much.

Brew on

True, but electric motors are capable of incredible amounts of torque. With enough torque, you can spin those props at a much slower RPM. These days some of the most advanced big turbo props are spinning those huge 6 bladed composite props at less than 1000 rpm at max T/O power.

 

[Bilsch]

With propeller airplanes, a large fraction, sometimes most, of the noise comes from the propeller, not the engine. Modern propeller designs can reduce the prop noise, but I don't know how much.

Brew on

I'd have to politely disagree since turboprops are much quieter in the air than a similar piston powered plane. Compare for instance a Navajo to a Cheyenne or a Cessna 421 to a 441. My hangar neighbor had a P210 turbine conversion and you could not hear that guy coming and going. Whereas my plane with the IO540K1A5 you could hear that noisy bastard from miles away.

 

[day_trippr]

Note that nothing comes for free, and "incredible amounts of torque" = energy dump.

Ironically, at the same time e-flight is trying to get wheels up, there's this emerging LFP battery tech which trades increased weight for reduced cost.
Not exactly in e-flight's wheelhouse. That segment could get hit with what will be increasingly expensive tech as cobalt becomes problematic at world-wide scale.

It's going to be an interesting future. Maybe not "The Jetsons" level interesting, but still...

Cheers!

 

[Kent88]

It's going to be an interesting future. Maybe not "The Jetsons" level interesting, but still...

Isn't George Jetson born this year?

 

[day_trippr]

Hahaha! YES! From "accounts" there is some episodic math extant that places his birth in this very year!
How cool is that!

 

[doug293cz]

True, but electric motors are capable of incredible amounts of torque. With enough torque, you can spin those props at a much slower RPM. These days some of the most advanced big turbo props are spinning those huge 6 bladed composite props at less than 1000 rpm at max T/O power.

I'd have to politely disagree since turboprops are much quieter in the air than a similar piston powered plane. Compare for instance a Navajo to a Cheyenne or a Cessna 421 to a 441. My hangar neighbor had a P210 turbine conversion and you could not hear that guy coming and going. Whereas my plane with the IO540K1A5 you could hear that noisy bastard from miles away.

Ok, I'll admit to over generalizing. Propeller noise depends heavily on the tip speed of the prop. A multi-blade prop, for the same RPM, has a lower tip velocity because it has a smaller diameter (for similar power.) I live under one of the common departure paths used by Q400 turboprops out of Seattle-Tacoma airport. When they are coming my way, what I hear are the props.

Brew on

 

[passedpawn]

Cool huh.
My car is mostly powered by fusion (solar) with a little fission from the grid thrown in for good measure.

Perhaps one day it'll actually be fusion - if the limeys can just make this donut small enough for the bed of my truck. Their experiment produced about 10MJ/s, which is 13,000 horse power. That'll do it

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/09/uk/nuclear-fusion-climate-energy-scn-intl/index.html

 

[Broothru]

Perhaps one day it'll actually be fusion - if the limeys can just make this donut small enough for the bed of my truck. Their experiment produced about 10MJ/s, which is 13,000 horse power. That'll do it

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/09/uk/nuclear-fusion-climate-energy-scn-intl/index.html

If yur lookin' to load up yer pickup with 13,000 hp, I'd say y'all been livin' in the South too long. Them Good Ol' Boys been takin' you to see NASCAR ur somethin'?

 

[passedpawn]

If yur lookin' to load up yer pickup with 13,000 hp, I'd say y'all been livin' in the South too long. Them Good Ol' Boys been takin' you to see NASCAR ur somethin'?

Yee haw!