{"id":1847,"date":"2010-09-23T07:47:06","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T14:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=1847"},"modified":"2014-12-23T08:28:53","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T15:28:53","slug":"launching-on-a-leaf-blower-and-a-hacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/launching-on-a-leaf-blower-and-a-hacker\/","title":{"rendered":"Launching on a Leaf Blower and a Hacker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Dewhurst and Dr. Paul Robertson, chronicled in an earlier entry about their <a href=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=246\">simultaneous electric ultralight flights <\/a>last year, have created another first, a parallel hybrid motorglider launch. The truncated flight of their Alatus took place on September 9, 2010 at Sywell Aerodrome, between Coventry and Cambridge north of London.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Alatus Hybrid - First Test Flight\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r3vQ62M6kLg?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>Dewhurst notes, &#8220;Flight was quite short though (around 1.5 minutes)\u00a0after the controller suffered a bit of tantrum complete with sparks! Rework [is] in process and we hope to have a rather longer flight soon.&#8221;\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Replacing the Lynch unit normally used in the Alatus&#8217;s\u00a0motorized version with an unspecified 76cc, 2.8 kilowatt (3.75 horsepower) internal combustion four-stroke leaf blower unit paralleled with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hacker-motor-shop.com\/e-vendo.php?shop=hacker&amp;SessionId=&amp;a=catalog&amp;t=3&amp;c=36&amp;p=36\">Hacker A200 <\/a>12 kilowatt (16 horsepower) large model airplane motor approximates the Lynch motor&#8217;s output.\u00a0 Despite that, the airplane seems reluctant to leave the ground in the video.<\/p>\n<p>Dewhurst explains, &#8220;Ground roll is quite long on the film, not entirely due to low thrust &#8211; it was uphill slightly and grass had just been cut and was just the right consistency to roll up behind the wheel and bunch up in the wheel box. I think on a hard surface we should be off in around 100-150 meters (320-480 feet).&#8221;\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Both engines are connected through their output shafts, turning together to drive the single propeller.\u00a0 According to Dewhurst, &#8220;The IC motor should almost have enough power to keep the Alatus in level flight at 80-percent, so will need just a little of the electric power to help it. In theory this should mean we can get around 1.5 hours duration using around 1 litre (.26 gallon)\u00a0\u00a0an hour and running the 2.4Kw cell pack down to 20 percent or so minimum. But that&#8217;s theory at present!&#8221;\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kokam.com\/english\/product\/battery_main.html\">Kokam lithium-polymer <\/a>battery pack consists of 16 cells weighing 18 kilograms (39.6 pounds) with a total capacity of 2.4 kilowatt hours.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As always, the installation wasn&#8217;t without its challenges to get this far, we ended up rewinding the hacker after it burnt out during ground running\u00a0at a rather lower temp than we expected. Paul [Robertson] has rewound it with his special take on heat transference to the core, using finer filaments and high temp potting agents and vacuum bagging to squeeze it all tightly together.&#8221;\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The Hacker develops at least as much power as in its original configuration, operating temperatures seem lower, and maximum temperature limits should be much higher.\u00a0 Dewhurst states that &#8220;Taking the IC motor out of its leaf blower home has required some work to get to cool satisfactorily too.&#8221;\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The relatively low cost of the components for this conversion should appeal to other experimenters.\u00a0 20 horsepower from a 26 kilogram (57.2 pound) package is as good as most four-stroke engine packages of that power, while offering radically better fuel economy.\u00a0 As a practical matter, any airplane that can take off and fly on one quart of fuel per hour while seeking out free thermals will have a place in green aviation&#8217;s future.<\/p>\n<div id=\"facebook_like\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fcafe.foundation%2Fblog%2Flaunching-on-a-leaf-blower-and-a-hacker%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>Paul Dewhurst and Dr. Paul Robertson, chronicled in an earlier entry about their simultaneous electric ultralight flights last year, have created another first, a parallel hybrid motorglider launch. The truncated flight of their Alatus took place on September 9, 2010 at Sywell Aerodrome, between Coventry and Cambridge north of London. Dewhurst notes, &#8220;Flight was quite [&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],"tags":[764,111,763,653,239,762,112,761],"class_list":["post-1847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-electric_powerplants","category-sustainable_ga","tag-alatus-motorglider","tag-dr-paul-robertson","tag-hacker-a200","tag-hybrid","tag-kokam-batteries","tag-parallel-hybrid","tag-paul-dewhurst","tag-sywell-aerodrome"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Launching on a Leaf Blower and a Hacker - 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\/launching-on-a-leaf-blower-and-a-hacker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Launching on a Leaf Blower and a Hacker - CAFE Foundation Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paul Dewhurst and Dr. Paul Robertson, chronicled in an earlier entry about their simultaneous electric ultralight flights last year, have created another first, a parallel hybrid motorglider launch. 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