{"id":188,"date":"2009-10-31T13:37:49","date_gmt":"2009-10-31T20:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=188"},"modified":"2009-10-31T13:40:53","modified_gmt":"2009-10-31T20:40:53","slug":"richard-vangrunsven-on-electric-airplanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/richard-vangrunsven-on-electric-airplanes\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard VanGrunsven on Electric Airplanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite having produced kits which have led to 6,410 RV aircraft <\/a>in the air at last count – all carbon-consuming and emitting lightplanes – Richard VanGrunsven owns an electric airplane, an Antares 20E self-launching sailplane. He attended AirVenture 2009, and reports on his findings <\/a>regarding the current crop of electric airplanes in his article “The Year of the Electric Airplane.”<\/p>\n

His opinions are worth noting, simply because of the worldwide acceptance of his designs.\u00a0 He obviously loves his Antares, noting its single-lever motor operation as “almost sinfully simple” compared to the more complex extension\/motor start\/operation\/shutdown\/retraction sequences on other motorgliders.\u00a0\u00a0 He\u00a0shows some disappointment in the low performance speeds of present electrically-powered craft, but notes that if the claims of\u00a0some\u00a0motor packages were fulfilled, “I’d run right out and get a ‘plug-and-play’ motor system and design an airplane around it.”\u00a0 Now, that’s an incentive for developers! <\/p>\n