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'Dawn of electric flight' in Sonoma County
The eGenius entry was one of three in the miles-per-allon phase of the Green Flight Challenge sponsored by NASA and Google at the Charles Schulz- Sonoma County Airport on Tuesday.
JOHN BURGESS / The Press DemocratPublished: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 7:51 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 7:51 p.m.
The Wright Brothers had their coming out party at Kitty Hawk. The pioneers of electrical flight may be doing the same this week during competitions at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport.
It's a bold suggestion, but organizers of the Green Flight Challenge don't avoid such historic language in describing the importance of the planes flying above them.
“This is the dawn of electric flight right here, right now,” said Mark Moore, an aerospace engineer with NASA, which is offering $1.3 million to the winner of the Challenge, the largest prize in aviation history. “This is a Lindbergh moment”
Two years in the making, the Green Flight Challenge is essentially a test of who can design and build the most mind-bendingly efficient plane while meeting practical considerations about things such as noise.
The event is sponsored by Google and run by the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation, a local non-profit with decades of experience in measuring efficient aircraft.
Originally, the gaudy prize money helped attract 13 teams. But costs, time limits, design challenges and other obstacles whittled the field to three hopefuls now facing off.
On Tuesday, the teams raced through four 50-mile laps above Sonoma County, needing to maintain a minimum average speed of 100 mph while using no more than the equivalent of a gallon of gas per passenger — about about fives times the efficiency of a typical Cessna, organizers said.
On Thursday, they'll take to the skies again trying to complete the 200 miles in the fastest speed possible while maintaining the same efficiency standard.
“The challenge here is to make a Prius fly,” NASA program manager Sam Ortega said.
Two of the planes are electrically powered, a field that is evolving rapidly, said Jack Langelaan, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering and leader of the Pipistrel-Penn State University team.
Just two years ago, the first electric aircraft went airborne for a mere 20 minutes. Now planes like his — the world's first four-person electric aircraft — are aloft for more than two hours, he said.
The technologies behind the progress are working their way into commercial aviation, Moore said.
But he's far more excited about their potential to revolutionize air travel on an individual level. As “personal air vehicles,” get safer, cheaper, easier to use, and ever more efficient, the day draws nearer when people will take air taxis from, say, Santa Rosa to places like San Jose, he said.
They will land at small pocket airports a short walk from their final destination, having never faced a traffic jam or been forced to take off their shoes at security.
“There's an incredible three-dimensional space to take advantage of,” Moore said. “The air is not cluttered at all.”
Brien Seeley, CAFE's president, who earned his pilot's license and built an electric car while still in medical school at UCSF, agrees. In the not-too distant future, he see neighborhoods with football field-sized airports, allowing people to easily fly where they now drive using far fewer resources, including time.
The competitors at the Green Flight Challenge are the people helping making that vision a reality, Seeley said.
“These are the hero pioneers of a new age of flight,” he said.
The event's wide following was reflected in the accents heard around the runway, including many from European countries. Joa Harrison, an aerospace engineer from Coeur d'Alene Idaho, hadn't come that far, but he had relocated for the week to volunteer to get an up-close view of the cutting-edge technology.
Standing in the baking sun Tuesday, he seemed to think the exchange was worth it.
“They don't get much more experimental than this,” he said.
The contest is closed to the public. CAFE will host an open house with the planes and members of the teams from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the airport. The entrance is at 5530 Windsor Road.
An awards ceremony and the Green Flight Challenge Exposition hosted by NASA will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 3, at the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Sunnyvale. Members of the public can reserve free tickets for the exposition at cafefoundation.org.
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