{"id":1438,"date":"2010-07-29T07:24:46","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T14:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2010-07-29T07:24:46","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T14:24:46","slug":"sikorsky%e2%80%99s-project-firefly%e2%84%a2-electric-helicopter-demonstrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/sikorsky%e2%80%99s-project-firefly%e2%84%a2-electric-helicopter-demonstrator\/","title":{"rendered":"Sikorsky\u2019s Project Firefly\u2122 Electric Helicopter Demonstrator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sikorsky.com\/vgn-ext-templating-SIK\/v\/index.jsp?vgnextoid=00de6eb78fa78110VgnVCM1000001382000aRCRD&amp;vgnextchannel=65f9e39d40a78110VgnVCM1000001382000aRCRD&amp;vgnextfmt=default&amp;pressvcmid=8b03f4d8f9986210VgnVCM1000004f62529fRCRD\">\u00a0Sikorsky Innovations<\/a>, the technology development arm of Sikorsky Aircraft, revealed last week at the Farnborough International Air show and this week at AirVenture 2010, the Firefly\u2122 Technology Demonstration Aircraft, the first all-electric helicopter.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sikorsky Firefly: An Electric Helicopter\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oD8TfjDMYT0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Based on an S-300C, the electrified version replaces the original Lycoming drive train with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ushybrid.com\/\">U.S. Hybrid <\/a>power package consisting of a 200 horsepower electric motor, motor controller, and 1,100-pound lithium- battery from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gaia-akku.com\/en\/batteries.html\">Gaia<\/a>.\u00a0 To monitor operations and \u201cthe health\u201d of the craft, Sikorsky has installed an LCD display in the modified center console.<\/p>\n<p>One benefit of electrified helicopters would be the discarding of the traditional complex series of mechanical links between the main rotor power takeoff and the tail rotor.\u00a0 The tail rotor on Firefly can be powered by small electric motor linked to the main rotor\u2019s speed output signal.<\/p>\n<p>The battery pack\u2019s high weight will allow only 15 minutes of flight at first.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our objectives with Project Firefly are to provide a proof of principle concept to validate the benefits of an electrically powered rotorcraft; to develop the technologies to enable the manned flight of that technology, and to drive future development of improved, state-of-the-art &#8216;green&#8217; technologies and practices,&#8221; said Chris Van Buiten, Director of Sikorsky Innovations.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Noting the depletion of world fuel reserves and \u201cspiraling fuel costs,&#8221; Mark Miller, Vice President, Sikorsky Research &amp; Engineering, noted, &#8220;Many of the most significant advancements in aviation have been enabled by transformations in propulsion technology. It is exciting to be at the forefront of the exploration of electric propulsion technology for rotorcraft.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Miller added, &#8220;Through the electrical conversion, propulsion efficiency of the aircraft has been increased roughly 300 percent from baseline. Electric propulsion also inherently simplifies the complexity of the propulsion system by reducing the quantity of moving parts, increasing reliability while reducing direct operating costs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With current energy storage technology, payload and endurance will fall short of typical helicopter performance. These values will grow as rapidly maturing technology is integrated on the demonstrator.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"facebook_like\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fcafe.foundation%2Fblog%2Fsikorsky%25e2%2580%2599s-project-firefly%25e2%2584%25a2-electric-helicopter-demonstrator%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=500&amp;action=like&amp;font=segoe+ui&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:500px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Sikorsky Innovations, the technology development arm of Sikorsky Aircraft, revealed last week at the Farnborough International Air show and this week at AirVenture 2010, the Firefly\u2122 Technology Demonstration Aircraft, the first all-electric helicopter. Based on an S-300C, the electrified version replaces the original Lycoming drive train with a U.S. Hybrid power package consisting of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14,1],"tags":[576,604,601,606,602,605,600,599,603],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-electric_powerplants","category-sustainable_ga","category-uncategorized","tag-airventure-2010","tag-chris-van-buiten","tag-electric-helicopter","tag-farnborough-international-air-show","tag-gaia","tag-mark-miller","tag-project-firefly","tag-sikorsky-innovations","tag-u-s-hybrid"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sikorsky\u2019s Project Firefly\u2122 Electric Helicopter Demonstrator - CAFE Foundation Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/sikorsky\u2019s-project-firefly\u2122-electric-helicopter-demonstrator\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sikorsky\u2019s Project Firefly\u2122 Electric Helicopter Demonstrator - CAFE Foundation Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0Sikorsky Innovations, the technology development arm of Sikorsky Aircraft, revealed last week at the Farnborough International Air show and this week at AirVenture 2010, the Firefly\u2122 Technology Demonstration Aircraft, the first all-electric helicopter. 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