{"id":3029,"date":"2011-04-09T09:01:24","date_gmt":"2011-04-09T16:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=3029"},"modified":"2011-04-10T06:28:28","modified_gmt":"2011-04-10T13:28:28","slug":"lindy-hop-to-lindbergh-leap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/lindy-hop-to-lindbergh-leap\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindy Hop to Lindbergh LEAP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sun n\u2019 Fun, following a disastrous sweep by an F1 tornado through the flight line <\/a>on Thursday, March 31, came back strong the following day, with F-22 demonstration flights, the Blue Angels, and a full contingent of top-drawer aerobatic pilots.<\/p>\n

The Green Aviation exhibits your editor had hoped to visit were partly gone, tents and exhibits having been dismantled and carted away in the remarkable overnight cleanup effort that took place, but the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU)\/Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) Stemme S-10 gleams undamaged in the sun.\u00a0 Lisa Costello,\u00a0a graduate student in aeronautical engineering, explains some highlights of what the students are crafting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Entered in the upcoming Green Flight Challenge, the S-10 was to use a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and lithium batteries for motivating an electric motor.\u00a0 That hybrid has been replaced by a Flight Design\/Rotax hybrid that combines a 100 horsepower engine with an electric motor for power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Morgan and Erik Lindbergh, Yolanka Wulff, and Lisa Costello with Embry Riddle's GFC Stemme S-10<\/p><\/div>\n

Lisa suggests we go to a nearby tent, where Erik Lindbergh, grandson of the famed trans-Atlantic solo aviator, is holding a press conference to announce details of the program\u2019s new sponsorship by the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and LEAP\u2019s April trip to the Friedrichshafen Aero Expo, which will include awarding prizes to the winner of the Berblinger ULM flight competition, a \u201cgreen aviation\u201d contest that will include several entrants in the Green Flight Challenge.\u00a0 At least 24 aircraft have qualified for the event, with a range of propulsive means, including solar power, fuel cells, batteries, and aviation gasoline.<\/p>\n

Prizes, awarded twice a year are \u201crecognition awards,\u201d Erik emphasizes, meant to provide incentives for creative individuals who will often use prize money to continue their efforts.<\/p>\n

Erik will also be part of a \u201cFirst Families of Flight\u201d<\/a> forum at Aero Expo, joined by descendants of other pioneers including \u201c Sergei Sikorsky (son of Igor, who created the first single-rotor, mass-produced helicopter); Amanda Wright Lane (great-grandniece of airplane inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright); Wolfgang von Zeppelin (great-great-grandnephew of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, developer of the eponymous lighter-than-air ship); Bertrand Piccard (founder of Solar Impulse, captain of the first nonstop round-the-world balloon flight, and grandson of Auguste Piccard, inventor of the pressurized cockpit and stratospheric balloon); and Cornelius Dornier (grandson of flying boat innovator Claude Dornier).\u201d\u00a0 Prince Albert II of Monaco, already a backer of the Solar Impulse project, will also participate.<\/p>\n

Despite the luster of such a gathering, Erik explains that it\u2019s really the students who comprise the point of LEAP.\u00a0 His face lights up as he points to the Hale Academy students and their mentors who are making a film about the Embry-Riddle project.\u00a0 Film-making is an integral part of LEAP, with a film festival to be held in Seattle in Fall, 2011 to highlight student films about various aspects of green aviation.\u00a0 Videos involve identifying problems, researching solutions with experts, and documenting solutions.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hrqsjzlb5Rs<\/p>\n

Erik, his brother Morgan and c0-CEO Yolanka Wulff field questions and invite students from Embry Riddle and Hale Academy to speak.\u00a0 Lisa Costello and team leader Dr. Richard P. Anderson give a brief explanation of the school’s part in LEAP, and are followed by students from Hale Academy, who are documenting the ERAU project.\u00a0 This coordinated work with students from K-12 is already a part of Embry Riddle\u2019s outreach <\/a>in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.<\/p>\n

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Erik (right front row), Yolanka (third from right), Morgan (left), and Hale Academy Team Advisor Lorene De Aranzela (back row right) smile for the cameras with Hale Academy Students<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
With this type of support and the intense committment of these students, aviation does have a bright future.\u00a0 Suggest this type of program to your local school board.\u00a0 No – demand it.<\/div>\n
One last note: The Lindy Hop, for those too young to have danced it (all of us) was a terpsichoreal fad after Charles Lindbergh “hopped” the Atlantic in 1927.<\/div>\n