The National Aeronautical Association (NAA) is planning a cross-country race for electric aircraft in 2023.
The race is a resumption of the Pulitzer air races first held in the early 1920s, and the winner of the race will be awarded the Pulitzer Trophy, which is now on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Pre-registration is now open for the first Pulitzer Electric Aircraft Race, planned for May 2023. The race will be a four-day, 1,000-nm cross-country race beginning in Omaha, Nebraska, and ending near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The race will be open to piloted aircraft of all types — from fixed-wing, helicopters, and multi-rotor eVTOL Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vehicles — using zero-emission electric propulsion.
A cross-country race, rather than a closed-circuit speed event, was selected to emphasize electric aircraft range and reliability, in addition to speed, in a realistic operating environment, according to NAA officials.
“A cross-country race will require careful logistical planning from the race teams and highlight different electric propulsion technology choices and operational strategies, such as rapid battery charging, whole battery changes, and solar power augmentation to extend range,” officials explained. “As a long distance, multi-day cross-country event open to all classes and types of electric aircraft, we have designed the Pulitzer Electric Aircraft Race to provide an open canvas for design innovations and be a flying expo for the electric aviation industry.”
Because many of the competitors may be in a research and development phase and using experimental aircraft, the race will be a day only, Visual Flight Rules (VFR) event, according to organizers.
The race winner will be the pilot with the fastest speed calculated from the cumulative flight time, not including time on the ground for maintenance, charging, or overnight stays.
The specific race rules have been developed by the NAA Pulitzer Race Committee and are available here.
The Pulitzer STEM Challenge
The NAA also will partner with nationally recognized Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) providers to leverage the Pulitzer Electric Aircraft Race as a STEM educational outreach opportunity, officials noted.
Fifth and sixth grade school science classes will explore electrical power systems and their application to aeronautical engineering in the semester leading up to the race. Students will follow their favorite competitors in real time, along with the rest of the world, via flight tracking website FlightAware.com and on the NAA Pulitzer Electric Aircraft Race website.
I find it interesting that electric cars and electric aircraft use about 0.3 kWhrs per mile of electrical power. The EVs, like Tesla however can operate just fine with an 1,100 pound battery of 100 kWhrs, and a gross weight of 6,000 pounds. The Pipestrel has a gross weight of 1,320 pounds, so has to get into the air with a 21 kWhr battery of about 210 pounds.
So, the prospect of a long range e-aircraft is near ZERO…. unless a miracle battery is developed. [ but it will still have the recharging time problem ]
It will be interesting to follow this ‘event’, which is really not a race. What aircraft can fly this route, besides the Pipistrel Electro Alpha ?
Even this aircraft will be a challenge to fly 1,000 nm.
It has a range of 75 nm at 65 kts, and then requires 1 hour to recharge its ‘little’ 21 kWhr battery, so averages 35 kts.
The flying time will be 28.6 hours, so with about 14 hrs of VFR flight time each day, it will be able to finish the morning of the 3rd day.
‘Car and Driver’ ran a test of EVs on a 1,000 mile drive, and most took 14-16 hrs, with 2+ hours of charging.
Even if the battery could weigh what the equivalent of avgas, there is still the huge recharging time vs 10 minutes to refill the tanks with avgas.
And, I agree with Kent, that CO2 is not a problem and there is no ‘climate crisis’. It’s purely political, and is destroying the US electric grid capacity….why ?
As The world moves on to electric- regardless of a small number of ( oil industry funded skeptics ?) – this race should prioritize over all speed.
Time on the ground is a detraction from proving usefull progress in the new electric tech!
A plane heavily loaded with batteries could be very fast but take many hours to get up in the air again. This is not a practical proposition!
All based on the myths that CO2 is a pollutant and man-climate change exists. It doesn’t. Far more interesting would be a race-race, point-to-point. Plenty of fast piston singles would be able to make the flight nonstop, especially those powered by diesel engines burning Jet-A. We need more fossil fuels, not less. See “Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas–Not Less” by Alex Epstein.