Electric Sykorski

[ozzie]

200hp electric helicopter. appearing at Airventure.

[Thalass]

Good luck to them. I wonder what battery chemistry they're using?

[ozzie]

lithium ion
Watt's up at Sikorsky

Sikorsky Introduces

[turboplanner]

Next, we'll see the loops, and upside down lawn mowing and hear that weird sound of blade warp Oz

[ozzie]

The thing is in a decade or so electric power will be considerd the norm and we will be wondering why we wasted all that money on these so inefficient and expensive to maintain internal combustion engines

[Thalass]

Damn. I was hoping they were using lithium-air. I want those for my bike! LiFePO4 is great, and all, but Lithium-air will be the game changer.

[ozzie]

that will be the mark2 or 3 version. great thing about improvements in battery technology is that your usable payload increases as the battery gets lighter and duration increases with basically no other changes to the powerplant just out with the old and in with the new.
Lithium Air Battery Update | New Energy and Fuel

another great thing about electric power is that once they have the componets reliability worked out the number of incidents and accidents should fall dramatically compared to todays ice powerplants. imagine no more broken thru bolts swallowed valve heads and other broken bits that we suffer from today. then on the other hand as one man makes things safer another will find new ways to keep the averages up there.

[turboplanner]

On the other hand Oz, you'll have to remember to charge the batteries up before you go flying!

I've lost a lot of RC Saturdays when I wake up, start assembling all the items on a beautiful calm sunny day, only o have to say Ah ****!

[Thalass]

Turboplanner: YouTube - The re-charge question

It'd be much the same with an aircraft in a hangar, or a parking area with plugs in the ground. Jump out, plug in, walk away.


Ozzie: That's the great thing. As long as the voltage is similar, any battery chemistry will do. You'd just have to reprogram the charger for the different profile. So the marginally practical batteries of today can be replaced with something awesome without a great deal of fuss.

[turboplanner]

I just cannot wait for fuel cell cars and trucks.
I've driven electric trucks in Japan and the acceleration is like the push of a Chev 350