DENVER, Colorado – Independence Aviation (IA) has signed a deposit agreement with Aero Electric Aircraft Corp. (AEAC) for an early delivery position on a Sun Flyer solar-electric training aircraft being developed by AEAC.
Bob Stedman, IA president and CEO, said the company’s management has been extremely concerned about the rapidly rising cost of learning to fly and the impact on the aviation industry.
“We applaud the efforts of other companies that are working on giving re-birth to Cessna 152s and 172s, and consider those to be important efforts on their part,” he said. “However, even rebuilding those venerable trainers doesn’t have the impact on training and experience costs that needs to happen. Only the new solar-electric Sun Flyer fully addresses those concerns. IA has great faith in looking at the industry differently, whether it is how personal airplanes are used or how we train today’s pilots. We believe the Sun Flyer is a true game-changer for our industry.”
AEAC is planning to offer the first certified U.S.-sponsored, all-electric airplane serving the aviation training markets. The company unveiled the single-seat technology demonstrator for its next-generation solar-electric training aircraft and continues to perform initial R&D flight test operations while the first two-seat prototype Sun Flyer is being assembled.
AEAC is licensing technology from PC-Aero and collaborating with Redbird Flight Simulations to offer a pilot training system.
Those of us who have been to OSH for 25yrs or more have seen this kind of stuff come and go. All I see is a picture. The problems with this concept have already been commented on. If you buy into this then I have some other opportunities for you to explore with your money.
I thoroughly applaud both the attempts to develop practical electric and/or hybrid gas/electric aircraft. And agree that an electric aircraft at the current state of technology can work for much of early pilot training and cut the cost. Good luck with that.
But it raises questions.
In many many respects an electric aircraft is going to be simpler to fly than out common piston engine.
Student pilot has done 20 hours in electric aircraft, soloed.
He/she is going to then have to do cross country in conventional aircraft (electric won’t have the range).
Quite a bit of transition going from an electric aircraft (far less to deal with for the pilot) to a 172 (etc.)
Even if somehow they can get their students all the way to or even past the final DPE in the electric (does it have enough endurance for that?) there’s still the pretty big and potentially hazardous bump if the newbie fully licensed pilot goes out to buy or rent a Cessna (there’s essentially nowhere but MAYbe this one flight school where he/she could rent an electric.)
He/she has zero experience at watching engine temps, carb mixture, what it should sound like, etc.
Should be interesting to watch how this plays out.
The other alternative for low cost flight training is glider flying using a winch. You can get in a lot of traffic pattern work and landings. Granted a winch launch is not a conventional take off, but it is fast and very fuel efficient; just 2 or 3 minutes and you’re up 1300-1800′. The winch operator does not need to be an instructor or even pilot. In good conditions you can even soar. Primary training in gliders has been in use for years all across Europe where Avgas can be $12+ per gallon. And in a glider you focus on stick and rudder skills, instead of engine, radio, etc.
If they are going to do flight training in this airplane, it is going to have to be certified. How long do they estimate before they will have type certification for the two-seater? It must be years away.
Sun Flyer is not the only solution. WATTsUP from Pipistrel, Slovenia is available for flight training as S-LSA.
Performance of the WATTsUP 2-seat electric trainer is tailored to the needs of flight schools. Short take-off distance, powerful 1000+ fpm climb, and endurance of one hour plus a 30 minute reserve. The WATTsUP is optimized for traffic-pattern operations, where 13% of energy is recuperated on every approach, increasing endurance and at the same time enabling short-field landings.
The notion and reality of manned “e” powered aircraft is sound thinking. The obstacles to keeping these aircraft flying in all weather and with an acceptable safety margin it would seem could employ hybrid power systems to compliment “e only”. It would seem a reasonable progression to “bridge the gap” to 100% electric propulsion (until battery and solar technology are extremely efficient, economic, and, safe and reliable) with hybrid (ice+e) power systems.
Don